Speaking during his 11th address of the nation on Covid-19 President Uhuru Kenyatta gave the reason why Kenya should review her constitution.
President Kenyatta noted that the country’s constitution has been hailed all over the world as the most progressive.
“Tomorrow, the 27th of August 2020 marks the tenth year since we promulgated our new constitution,” said President Kenyatta.
“This constitution has been hailed, the world over, as one of the most progressive in the world. And this is because it is an embodiment of what a social contract between people of different origins and their government, should be.”
President Kenyatta noted that “… If our past is constantly at war with our present, we end up losing our future”. And the spirit of the constitution was to reconcile the past with the present to secure the future of the country.
He said the crafters of the new constitution noted that the new constitution was a “work in progress. For this reason, Kenya adopted it with the promise it will make it better in the future
“Ten years later, the moment to improve on it is – NOW. And as I said in my Madaraka Day Speech, we must not succumb to the paralysis of constitutional rigidity. We must treat a constitution as a living document that must constantly adjust to our emerging realities,” President Kenyatta said.
Uhuru said previously the Kenyan constitution had been viewed as the cease-fire document – an agreement “created to dodge confrontation and civil conflict”.
According to him, the document is a cease-fire because it represents a constant argument between the past and the present.
President Kenyatta called on the country to now do better. He called on the country to abandon the “cease-fire document that enforces a zero-sum game in which the winner takes it all but create a constitutional order that will long endure.
To do that, the President emphasized the need for a referendum.
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“I want to emphasize that we must not go for the populist path,” he said.
He called on the country to choose the bold path – that will ensure the country sustains peace and security as well as shared economic prosperity.
The President urged Kenyans to view the health crisis as an opportunity and not just a danger to enable them to reorganize the county, its constitutional architecture, and its heritage.
