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TOO MUCH CLEVERNESS
By Bob Julius Anyula, Political Reporter, Goodmorning Kenya News
Celebrated journalist and columnist Kwamchetsi Makokha has delivered a blistering rejoinder to Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, dismissing his push for a referendum as “too much cleverness, minus honesty.” in an open letter to Hon Mudavadi, Makokha writes,…
Dear Son of Hannah,
I have read your statement on the so-called “imperative of constitutional amendment” with deep alarm. Your argument suggests that when the Executive fails to obey the Constitution, the remedy is to amend it. That is a dangerous proposition.
Everyone—yourself included—knew that constituency boundary reviews were due once the 2019 census was concluded. Six years have passed. Three of those years you have spent in your current office—an office that the Constitution does not even contemplate—yet no meaningful action was taken to prepare the country for this moment.
There is no record of effort, no urgency, no leadership from you or your appointing authority on resolving the boundaries question. Seven months since the new IEBC came into office, its focus has been on everything except boundary review. This crisis is not accidental; it is manufactured. And those who manufacture a crisis must not be allowed to profit from it.
The attempt to launder years of government inaction through a hastily packaged referendum is a textbook example of poor governance that Kenyans must reject.
Courts have repeatedly affirmed that the National Government CDF and similar funds offend the Constitution. Development is achieved through coherent planning—not political patronage. Creating new funds only undermines county governments and weakens devolution.
Your proposals on elite political pacts—Prime Minister, Leader of the Official Opposition and other hand-stitched offices—warp the constitutional architecture without offering any benefit to ordinary citizens.
As for the two-thirds gender rule, the problem has never been the Constitution. It is the entrenched patriarchy of Kenya’s political class. This principle is functional everywhere else—from cattle dip committees to church groups. Why does it only fail in Parliament and the Cabinet? Ask yourself that.
Your referendum proposal is too clever by half. Without honesty, public participation, civic education or citizen demand, it becomes nothing more than a political instrument in search of a political moment. A referendum held alongside a general election risks confusing voters, enabling manipulation and producing consent too shallow to sustain constitutional change.
The Constitution belongs to citizens—not to election calendars or political deals. Do not turn it into a personal toolkit.
