AGLI Report

RantWoman is getting to be pretty shameless about the blog as filing cabinet aspect of this ministry: RantWoman not infrequently makes entries specifically because she wants reliably to be able to find an item in the future. In this case, reliably find includes both the content of the AGLI report which readers can request directly but also the intro from the Friend who forwarded this.

RantWoman notes in passing the comments from the Friend who forwarded which are imbedded in the text angle. RantWoman does not necessarily unite with all the descriptions but finds some points highly on topic.

RantWoman further emphasizes that the AGLI reports consistently contain concise, thoughtful, well-informed commentary that RantWoman would be very hard pressed to come up with as efficiently anywhere else. RantWoman has heard David speak: even though his perspectives have HUGE potential in terms of conflict reduction in the countries where he works, he reports that numbers of bodies one would think would find his work highly relevant simply ignore it. RantWoman is reposting partly in hopes of widening the circles of people who read and connecting with people who might be led to act in some way.

RantWoman notes a bit in the middle about ways of sabotaging change / progress. RantWoman does not, in this posting want to digress too far down paths of times she has observed similar dynamics at work in other bodies, as well, URK! as in Quaker Business Meeting. For the time being RantWoman will simply hold that line of reasoning in the Light.


Sent: Mon, Mar 7, 2011 10:31 am
Subject: Fwd: AGLI - Report from Kenya - Implementation of the New Kenyan Constitution - March 4, 2011

This report is from AGLI, African Great Lakes Initiative, sponsored
by Friends Church Quakers in Kenya. Friends Church (a split in US
Quakerism that occurred a good while back, and made two Quaker groups
in US, unprogrammed Friends like I belong to, and "programmed"
Friends, who have a pastor, church setting and church in their name.
Unprogrammed is generally considered liberal, programmed
conservative, evangelical, yet we share a publication, Friends
Journal, FCNL Friends Committee on National Legislation (more
unprogrammed than programmed), and an international organization
Friends World Committee.) Most of the Quakers in the world are
African and live in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi, members of Friends
Church. These people have developed an Alternatives to Violence (AVP)
program to bring Hutus/Tutsi's, those who harmed and those who were
harmed, together (no requirement to be Quaker to attend highly
successful and powerful workshop, nor to forgive anyone, though
forgiveness often takes place) supporting people with deep resentment
and anger to each other, to grieve and develop relationship and
community in extremely challenging situations. I have been following
their work for many years, listening to speakers, and am deeply
touched with the capabilities of these AVP workshops, and the
commitment of both Hutus and Tutsi's to lead and also participate in
the workshops.

Therefore, I fully trust the AGLI report, described strategies of
empire/power, and comments relevant to things Middle East. If you
pray or hold people in the light, or whatever, our intentioned
support to the people of Kenya is extremely important.

Thanks for keeping on reading....

AGLI - Report from Kenya - March 4, 2011

Implementation of the New Kenyan Constitution

Dear All,

Implementation of the New Kenyan Constitution

Today is seven months since the New Kenyan Constitution was handily passed in August. I have been asked about my take on how its implementation is fairing. The answer is "poorly." This does not surprise me a bit.

Kenyans have spent at least the last twenty years attempting to get a new constitution. One must remember that the secret of colonial rule was to consolidate control at the center. With independence in 1963, Kenya was handed a constitution embedded with this centralized control. During the reign of the first president, Jomo Kenyatta, centralized control was increased, forming the imperial presidency. The second president, Daniel Arap Moi, used this centralized control to impose a dictatorship. Kenyans were well aware of the changes needed and finally in the 2003 election overthrew the Moi regime. Candidate Mwai Kibaki campaigned on a pledge for a new constitution which would de-centralize power and establish independent branches of government. Alas, as soon as he was elected, he saw the prime benefits of the imperial presidency for him and his supporters and reverted to the good old ways. People should not have been too surprised by this because the "winners" were mostly former members of the losing side.

A constitutional convention was organized and our Quaker Friend, Florence Machayo, was one of the convention members who helped draft this new constitution. As the people of the country wanted, the new constitution abolished the imperial, centralized establishment. When the proposed constitution was given to the Kenyan Government for their approval, they removed these decentralized aspects and re-instituted the imperial presidency. As a result, those who had drafted the new constitution, including Florence Machayo, worked for its defeat in the 2005 referendum and as a result it ended up losing.

One of the accords ending the 2007/08 post election violence was that a new constitution would be drafted. This time it was done by a committee of experts and the government had limited ability to change it before the referendum vote. The new constitution with devolution of power to 42 districts and dismantling of centralized control then passed on August 4, 2010 with a decisive majority. To be effective, it needed to be implemented in the new spirit.

There is so much at stake here. The Permanent Secretary of the Treasury Department recently admitted that 27% of the tax income was embezzled. Others put the figure at 33% to 50%. In addition, there is the looting of foreign aid, receipt of bribes from businesses, and the launching of bogus contracts. There are three methods of dealing with corrupt governments:

violent overthrow by a rebel group (which then takes over and continues the looting);

constitutional reform;

and mass civic demonstrations as have just happened in Tunisia and Egypt.

As soon as the new constitution was passed, the entrenched elite began their counter-attack to co-opt or destroy the new constitution. All kinds of new laws need to be passed to implement the new aspects of the constitution. The front page headline in yesterday's Daily Nation was "MPs on holiday again as reform agenda piles up." The method used is to get the nation all stirred up over extraneous issues. For example, at the end of last year a cable released by Wikileaks said that the American ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, called the Kenyan Government "a swamp of corruption." So the PMs (who were elected by and beholding to the old order) were furious with him. They debated it in parliament, and tried to ask the Obama administration to withdraw him. Ordinary Kenyans didn't see anything wrong with the statement because he was just saying the truth. The hidden agenda, though, is that this diverted attention from implementing the new constitution.

So it has gone with diversionary issues raised one after the other. Recently President Kibaki appointed four high officials including the attorney general and chief justice in the spirit of the imperial presidency. None of these were women and the new constitution indicates that 1/3 of all positions must be held by women. The country argued about this for over a month until Kibaki finally had to back down; another diversion from implementing the constitution.

Those who benefited from the old corrupt regime are placing every obstacle they can in the way of change; frequently interpreting clauses in the constitution to their own benefit, opposing others, going to court continually on every small issue, refusing to allocate funds to implement the reforms, arguing over every appointment, and so on. Note that all political parties are playing this same game and I wonder if they are not in cahoots, purposely making mountains out of molehills in order to keep people from noticing that the snow is melting on Mt Kenya.

While it is now clear that people power can drive corrupt governments out of power (although the reform government may be just new faces for the old, corrupt ones), it is not clear, at least from the Kenyan example, that a new progressive constitution will destroy the old order. This is still a work in progress and it will not be until well after the August 2012 election that a good assessment can be made regarding the effectiveness of the new constitution toward ending corruption and bringing normal services to the people.

When I am optimistic, as I am at the moment, I think as follows. In this new age, there are going to be lots of wikileaks which are going to be an essential component of tackling corruption on the grand scale -- one of Wikileaks first leaks concerned a report on corruption in Kenya that the Government had suppressed. The only method of dealing with this is to be more transparent in the first place. The new modes of communication are going to allow people to protest. The crucial question in Kenya is whether the people will unite against the corrupt, ruling class or continue to be "fooled" by appeals to ethnicity and tribalism. Stay tuned for further developments.
Peace,
Dave

Webpage: www.aglifpt.org
Email: dave@aglifpt.org
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya
Phone in Kenya: 254 (0)726 590 783 in US: 240/543-1172
Office in US:1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/647-1287

Distributed by:

Dawn L Rubbert, Program Manager
African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI) of the Friends Peace Teams
St. Louis, Missouri
314-647-1287
www.aglifpt.org