Kenya: Social movements must bring constitution to life

There is great hope for many patriotic Kenyans who exercised their democratic and fundamental right to make an appointment with great history, in giving birth to a new constitution, that will create new legal and political frameworks to anchor the struggle of social justice and new democratic state in Kenya.

But the national question for progressive forces after 21-gun salute on 27 August 2010 to promulgate the new constitution is on how to build strong social movements to breathe life into the new constitutional text. As noted before and during this referendum campaign, Kenyans were mobilised individually to come and participate in the referendum vote – as happens every time during the general election.

It was only embryonic social movements like Warembo ni Yes, a young women’s alternative leadership platform created by Bunge La Mwananchi Women social movement that made the critical efforts to mobilise the collective women voters’ constituency in the referendum.

The history and limitation of individualised voters is inherent in representative liberal democracy, and the challenge of social justice activist and progressive political forces after coming of the new constitution is to move from this limitation of individualized voter and sham democracy to values of participatory democracy.

In a participatory democracy, the organised social forces of workers, peasants and women’s social movements participate in referendums or in voting women’s candidates for representation in bourgeoisie parliament. However they must also breathe life into the new constitution – by collective mobilisation and the creation of political consciousness through mass organisation and social movements that advance and anchor social struggle political programmes in demand for people’s livelihoods and access to the rights to food, quality education, shelter, quality healthcare and clean water for all – if the new constitution dispensation is to have meaning for many poor Kenyans living in horrible conditions of neocolonial poverty due to historical exploitation, neoliberal capitalist economic policies and corruption by the ruling political class.

Professor Yash Ghai has argued in an article posted in the Oxford Journal on Transitional Justice (OTJR) debate on the challenges of establishing constitutional order in Kenya that ‘The constitution can’t achieve anything by itself: like Marx’s commodities, it does not have arms and legs, it must be mobilized, acted upon and used’. This political dictum confirms to us that we must construct organic social movements as political, social and economic instruments to be the arms and legs to mobilise and organise the exploited masses to act and use the new constitutional framework to bring fundamental social change in Kenya.

It is good to note here also that the new constitution has not altered the fundamentals of neocolonial political economy that introduced Kenya society to inequality and extreme poverty, although it creates the illusion of a social democratic state, with a progressive bill of rights and economic social rights anchored in the constitution. This is only a token of legalism language, within liberal bourgeoisie democracy that cannot solve the problem of historical exploitation, marginalisation and social inequalities, that manifest in crime, homelessness, unemployment, environmental destruction and poverty-linked disease that is killing our people everywhere, in our slums, estate and villages across the country.

The new ratified constitution indeed has a positive aspect of elite consensus, on structure of devolved political power in the 47 created county assemblies with 15 per cent of the national budget allocated to all the 47 counties collectively as devolved funds. This has created a political space for the right to organise and democratise development in the local level, which progressive forces can utilise to advance the cause of national democratic revolution, from below.

But the opened economic political space calls for alternative political leadership and new strategies for grounding the people’s struggle within the new political environment. This comes with the challenge of building a new democratic institution: To breathe values into these institutions calls for the participation of social movements that will pressure and democratise the state and inject values of patriotism and accountability into the public service. It also requires the development of alliances in county assemblies between the trade unions movement, the women’s movement, the small farmers’ and fishermen’s cooperative movements, as political social forces to revitalise popular resistance. This must be rooted in mass base movement to confront the inherently violent neoliberal capitalism economy that is present phase of imperialism, in today’s Kenyan economy (as Professor Issa Shivji one of East Africa’s original thinkers, and organic intellectuals, has argued in his recent book, ‘Where is Uhuru?’, a reflection on the struggle for democracy in Africa, and the pitfalls of liberal reforms (the third generation or rights-based constitutions) p61. On the question of the irreconcilable contradiction between the rhetoric of constitutionalism and human rights-based constitutions with values of an open, transparent, accountable government, responsible to provide basics needs to its people, that is contradicted by neoliberal capitalism based on marketisation and privatisation of basic needs and withdrawal of state from economic sphere, that undermine the role of developmental state.

The struggle to locate human rights and social justice activism in community grassroots movements will demand new passion, ideas and an alternative strategy in the construction of organic community-based political instruments that will come with new challenges. These will not attract the usual donor funding from neoliberal sources, because the independent strong social movement in grassroots will educate the masses and organise community for popular struggles and livelihoods which sharpen social contradiction that expose the masses to the exploitation of neoliberal capitalism and the political character of donor agencies and non-governmental organisations, that emphasises on divisive project funding and donations to divide and undermine the organic social movement and pacify masses for a limited time, as happened in Latin America in past decades of neoliberal reform era.

The experience in theory and practice of building social movements in Kenya has been tested by Bunge La Mwananchi social activists in community organising on popular resistance, demand for social justice and respect for human rights, which invite progressive social forces, civil society intellectual and Bunge Mwananchi organic intellectual activist to study and have national debate on past political and environmentalist movement, for example, the December Twelve Movement (DTM), which was organised by progressive university intellectual, Mwakenya, from university intellectual, students, workers and peasants. Also on this line is Release Political Prisoners (RPP), Green belt Movement, February 18 (FERA) and Forum for Restoration Democracy (FORD), that championed restoration of neo-liberal multi-party politics in Kenya. Other forms of movements are constitutional struggles such as the National Executive Council (NCEC), which was in the vanguard, and the collective leadership of the National Constituency Assembly (NCA) the constitutional reform movement and many others that have shaped the terrain of political struggle in Kenya.

The study of these movements and discussion and intellectual debate will help the emerging social movements in the new terrain to understand the political mistakes that were made by the leadership of past people’s movements. These can be used to improve theory and political practice and educate cadres of Bunge La Mwananchi social movement and help to clarify the contestation of the movement’s organisational leadership structure, the relation of leadership and masses, the question of movement in relation with political parties, civil society and reform versus revolution, and what is the true nature of peoples democracy.

This study also can help to expose the role of the ruling political class, together with security agencies in Kenya in dogmatising and corrupting the movement’s leadership and donor agencies interests that undermine the collective leadership of the social movement, and organic activities in grassroots, while supporting individualised leadership in form of false internet website human rights activism, with very expensive report writing to donor agencies as political fog that obstructs and slows down the movement building in community-based activities which demand disciplined cadres of community organisers, extensive organised planning participation of grassroots members, and skills in community organising, which is shunned by most mainstream human rights organisations and most of their donors.

This is the challenge that Bunge la Mwananchi social movement has been struggling with and must confront with battle of ideas as it develops and grounds strong community-based social activists and basic movement social structures to anchor the movement’s democratic control from below and mitigates the influence of donors agencies and political class that want to create personality cult political leadership in the movement, in resemblance with their political party leadership that is devoid of citizen participation democratic debate and discussion on many challenges facing the nation.

The implementation of the new constitution will demand an intellectual discourse, debates and Mwananchi discussion to interpret the constitution to reflect the wishes of many poor Kenyans who voted for the new constitution. This must be anchored in grassroots social movements with organic intellectuals being integrated into militant political activism to advance the struggle for social change, and build democratic institutions with democratisation of national resource for access to livelihoods for all.

Lastly the vision statement of 7th Pan-African Congress in Kampala in April 1994 remains again our fresh calling today: As a social movement in Kenya we must ‘Dare to dream the same dream that has always filled the villages, ghettos, townships and slave quarters with hope, that has always animated the spirit of resistance, that has united the oppressed, the dispossessed, and the exploited masses of our people for genuine democracy. We the African people are our own liberators and thinkers whose task is to make a mighty stride towards genuine freedom by any means necessary. Our salvation is in our own hands. Don't Agonise, Organise.’

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* Gacheke Gachihi is a social justice activist and member of Bunge La Mwananchi social movement.
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