A new Kenya offering hope where despondence has reigned supreme, cohesion where we have been torn assunder. It is a new kind of challenge. And as Abraham Lincoln would caution, as our challenges are new, so must we think anew I truly am happy to be back here! Indeed, I must admit that among the little steps forward that rank closest to my heart is that whirlwind weekly column I ran for The Standard on Sunday until 2009. You see, by the summer of 2005, Kenya was enveloped in a raging constitution review typhoon, which ultimately culminated in the epochal orange-banana duel whose seismic waves have reverbrated for years. While the rivetting scenario unfolded, I was ensconced in the relative calm of Washington, DC for my post-graduate law studies. But I remained eager to continue my contribution in our Sisyphean national ordeal that motivated my undergraduate dissertation at the University of Nairobi, aptly titled “The Delicate Balance in Constitutional Reforms”. The setting was just perfect for the birth of a bird’s eye-view regular op-ed that would go on to blossom into a hardball weekly column, which roused and rankled in equal measure. In 2009, my steamy four-year literary romance with this historic paper fell victim to the demands of political office, and we reluctantly parted ways. But as the Swahili say, mwenda tezi na omo, marejeo ni ngamani. And so, after several years of my self-enforced sabbatical, voila, the old flame has flickered back to life! I return to a paper that has grown in leaps and bounds. Of course I have also come along quite a bit. During the interlude, I have written a little here and there. And with a stint in Cabinet and a second parliamentary term under my belt, I return older, hopefully wiser and, I pray, an inch bettered in similar manner as the passage of time does to a good wine. Indeed last year Kibaki did confer upon me the Order of Elder of the Golden Heart! As I settle down to this new series of my weekly column, I cant help feeling a great sense of deja vu! Like in 2005 when I first started, the stars have conspired to make this a manifestly gripping moment in the history of our land. Of course we did eventually conclude that winding search for constitutional nirvana. And I will forever be thankful for being part of that historic conclusion as well, when I co- chaired, with my friend Abdikadir Mohamed, the parliamentary select committee on constitution review. But like all human enterprise, every success story leads to a new challenge. And so, just like Caesar found out that crossing the Rubicon and marching on Rome was merely the beginning of an even greater challenge, so are we as Kenyans confronted with the reality that enacting a new constitutional order three years ago was never an end in itself, but rather the beginning of a monumental new challenge. The challenge of deconstructing the old Kenya with all its demons of historical injustices and institutional deformities, and reconstructing in its place a new nation deliberately architectured to avoid the pitfalls of its forebearer. A new Kenya offering hope where despondence has reigned supreme, cohesion where we have been torn assunder. It is a new kind of challenge. And as Abraham Lincoln would caution, as our challenges are new, so must we think anew..Mr.Namwamba.. to fellow kenyans
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 14:50:29 +0000
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