Kenyans once again demonstrated their immense maturity in the peaceful voting against the Draft Consitutuion on November 21st which resulted in a clear, but not overwhelming, defeat (53% to 47%) for the government. Outside of South Africa, it's hard to think of a populace as dedicated to peaceful voting as Kenyans - a credit to the continent.
Yet the rejection of the Draft ushers in prolonged political instability and an even worse spectre. The hare-brained older "Bomas Draft" with 5, count 'em, levels of elected government plus an upper chamber and "upper and lower limits on the amount of land" one can own. Considering that with just one layer of elected government our MPs have practically bankrupted Kenya, the wisdom of the "Bomas Draft" becomes so questionable as to render one terminally depressed.
The opposition "Orange" group seems to be firm believers in the "big government, small citizens" theory of left wing politics. The idea that Kenyans are people who need a small hard working government that concentrates on making use of valuable African social conservatism and the immense entreprenurial spirit of Kenyans generally, seems to occcur to no leader whatsoever.
On a strata of 15% middle class citizens, the Bomas Draft seeks to bring about social(ist) utopia via government doing more of what they have failed to do since independance in 1963.
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