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{
    "id": 110137,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/110137/?format=api",
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    "content": "Parliamentary Group (IPPG) where hon. Dalmas Otieno and I were the co-chairs of the Constitutional Reform Committee. Then I had the privilege of being the Minister for Justice, Constitutional Affairs and National Cohesion, organising the process at the Bomas of Kenya. I also had the privilege to organise the first referendum in this country. I organised the walkout from Bomas and I thank God that I am here today to see the conclusion of this process through this Parliament. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on a personal footnote, I would like to say that this whole journey has been a very painful personal journey of discovery for me. I have learnt a lot by going through this process and listening to others. I am a very different person from when it begun and I want to thank, especially my colleagues from marginalised areas because they have really educated me; people from Laisamis, North Eastern and other places. I have come to appreciate the world in which they come from. I have come to appreciate the concerns that drive them. I think I am now in a position to say, let us make a constitution for Kenyans. The days when we used to make the constitution for oranges and bananas are long gone. Let us have those days behind us. Let us sing a new song and create a new constitution for all Kenyans. I have also discovered something else. When we entered this struggle for constitutional reforms, that time we were fighting for justice. We were trying to lift the burden of oppression and tyranny from the backs of Kenyans. Over the years, the constitutional reform struggle has changed in both form and character. These days, constitutional reform is about power. It has been reduced to a complex political game. The reason why it is taking us such a long time to agree on this constitution is because there are too many political intrigues. There are endless ethnic caucuses, backroom political machinations and cloak and dagger politics, all masked as constitutional reforms. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is becoming very difficult to agree on this Draft not because we have any ideological differences among ourselves, not because we do not want to do good for Kenyans but because we have become captives. We have become prisoners of where we come from. Most of the amendments that are being proposed in this Draft are being proposed because you come from this or that region or tribe. They are being proposed because you come from this or that religion or they are being proposed because you think if that amendment goes through, your preferred candidate for 2012 presidential elections is going to benefit. I think we have to put all these things aside if we are to write a good constitution for this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, God has made it possible for us to live so that we can walk freely in this our country, but many of us are not contented merely to live and enjoy the country. They want to own it, dominate others, and if possible, own them. That is the problem! The resistance that is being made is because people are looking for the games in this Constitution about who wants to dominate who; who wants to cheat who and who wants to expel who from where. So, this is what is complicating our own constitutional making process this time round."
}