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Kenya: Displaced - Let's Take a Leaf From the U.S.
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The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
10 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Njuguna Mutonya
Nairobi
In the autumn of 1957, nine black students from Little Rock of Arkansas, the US, defiantly strode up to the all-white Central High School and demanded to be admitted.
Their defiance was not based on a vacuum since it was challenging the constitutional amendments that had banned segregation in education through a ruling famously known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
The governor of Arkansas sent the National Guard to stop the nine from entering the school in support of the mainstream racist sentiments expressed by the majority whites.
President Eisenhower, in full realisation of the gravity of defying a constitutional ruling supported the drive by the nine black students and as the conflagration increased with abuse and violence meted on them, made what every democratic leader could have done.
He sent in 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 National Guardsmen to ensure the constitution was complied with. To have done anything less would have been betraying the oath of office he had taken - to defend the constitution. It would have been treasonable.
Finally , the Little Rock Nine prevailed and segregation was broken in American schools forever despite the defiance by the racist majority.
In Kenya, as the displaced trickle back to their homes, the grand coalition government faces the same situation as President Eisenhower.
While resettlement is fraught with danger from the still simmering suspicions, any indecisiveness on the Government's part to comply with the constitutional order will be a betrayal of the same legal document and is likely to touch off state of anarchy.
President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have sworn fealty to the Constitution, which guarantees all Kenyans the right to life and legal property.
The principle of ensuring that all citizens get equal protection from the Government, especially when their constitutional rights are endangered, is inviolable, undebatable and sacred.
The modalities of its implementation might vary, but the principle cannot be varied for whatever reason other than an amendment or a repeal of the Constitution.
I shudder to imagine what would happen if some Kenyans were to be allowed by precedence to occupy others' houses for whatever reason, political or otherwise, or chase away neighbours they consider different in whatever way from themselves.
It is surprising that MPs mislead the public about the legal realities of the quagmire we now find ourselves in.
Fealty to the Constitution does not remove the need to seek a peaceful resolution to outstanding issues, which is crucial to ensuring the acrimonious parties' peaceful co-existence.
But we cannot suspend the Constitution even for a minute since this would be tantamount to betrayal of the oath of office by the people we have entrusted this nation's helmsmanship to.
The current crisis, however, presents us with the chance to re-evaluate our past practices about land ownership and even appreciate the social peculiarities that make some communities more mobile than others. We must also re-evaluate the concept of organised resettlement spearheaded by the Government as opposed to spontaneous migratory patterns that lead to insensitivity to local interests.
Why did giant programmes like the Bura and Hola irrigation schemes falter and who was responsible? And how come projects like Lake Kenyatta (Mpeketoni) in Lamu and Shimba Hills in Kwale are such glaring successes?
The onus is on the Government to establish a land policy that recognises all our peculiarities, historical and otherwise, without trying to overturn the constitutional order. This is why we need a new constitutional dispensation before things get out of hand .
It must be a constitution that we can call our own and one we can defend with our blood if necessary.
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This is why people who want to go back to their farms must be given all the security they need, and those who wish not to be resettled elsewhere whatever it takes without further delay.
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