This is it! Finally, after protracted struggles dating back at least two decades (if not more) Kenya has a new constitution.

Kenyans voted in high numbers with a turnout of just over 70 per cent of all registered voters to say yes to a new constitution

The statutory requirement of 50 per cent plus one and 25 per cent in at least five provinces was easily surpassed, with just under 70 per cent of Kenyans who voted endorsing and legitimising the new Constitution.

It is a new day for Kenya.

Polling, counting and tallying was, by and large, peaceful., but this being Kenya, they were not without their funny side as well.

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) signaled its determination to get polling materials out by any and all means possible, including boats (one of which leaked and capsized and had to be followed by another) and via Kenya’s long-suffering donkeys!

The Provincial Administration ensured that Kenyans exercised their patriotic duty to vote soberly: in at least two areas, bars were ordered to stay closed until well after the 5 pm voting deadline. This did not stop one presiding officer from having to be replaced for being drunk, but such little blips aside, Kenyans showed up to polling stations early. Most polling station lines were long in the morning and fairly easy to manage by early afternoon.

The electronic transmission of results from individual polling stations also went smoothly.

The generally expectant celebratory mood at the national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya was marred by only two things: An early accusation of rigging and a statement to the effect that the National Council of Churches of Kenya rejected the results. This statement was quickly refuted by the Archbishop of the Anglican Church.

Tension over the manner in which the polling station results were being released was eventually resolved in a mediation meeting between representatives of the Yes and No campaigns together with the IIEC.

All credit here goes to the IIEC, which handled both potential disruptions with calm and decorum, acutely aware of the possible effects of not doing so on the ground, particularly given reports coming in from Kericho of roadblocks being erected and, further north, threats against the Turkana from the Pokot for having voted ‘wrongly.’

Credit must also be given to the massive and visible security presence in those areas and, less visibly, in Nairobi), which enabled a quick response to both situations in a manner that did not escalate them. Even rangers from the Kenyan Wildlife Service had been deployed to join the security effort.

In short, the state took its obligations to assure Kenyans of their security seriously, and doing so paid off. Nothing is being taken for granted following the referendum - the deployment of security officials will extend until at least August 9.

that Kenya has shown, through the IIEC, state security agencies as well as the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, Peacenet’s national alert system and the mass of civil society organisations involved in monitoring the referendum process, that we can and will make sure that our electoral process is restored. Hongera to all.

But hongera too to the long legacy of struggle that has brought us to this place.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the academics and students associated with the left, the parliamentarians of that time who stood up to the then president, the lone voices among the Christian clergy like that of Reverend Timothy Njoya.

In the 1990s, this coalition of influences enabled the formation of the original Forum for the Restoration of Democracy as well as the emerging human rights movement and the independent media, along with the parties to the National Convention Executive Council and the National Constitutional Assembly and the ordinary Kenyans citizens who joined the public demonstrations and protests, including those who lost their lives on the second Saba Saba. This coalition also included the Ufungamano Initiative, which eventually merged under the Prof Yash Pal Ghai-led Constitution Review Commission of Kenya.

These groups were all involved in the Bomas process and ensured Kenya’s mediation agreements under the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation included a commitment to finalise the constitutional review process.

The Committee of Experts and the supporting Parliamentary Select Committee, as well as the ordinary Kenyans and the more organised civil society groups it upon themselves to criss-cross the country with civic education on the Proposed Constitution of Kenya. They were joined by some Christian leaders and politicians who stood on the right side of history and campaigned for a Yes vote. Hongera. Hongera. Hongera.

It has been such a long time coming. It has been at such great cost to so many Kenyans. But we have crossed the Rubicon and we are standing on the other side.

Now the work really begins. In the short term assuring post-referendum security is the priority, as is continuing with civic education in areas that still need to be reached.

In the short term there is the immense amount of legislation that needs to be amended, repealed and included in the new Constitution. There must be clarification about the criteria for and the process of appointments to the overseeing implementation commission and its supporting parliamentary committee and the public offices most immediately affected.

The state cannot be transformed without those capable of and willing to transform it. Identifying the hallmarks of such people and insisting on no less than the same is critical.

In the longer term, we ourselves all need to transform too, to internalise the fundamental changes in the nature of governance that the new Constitution has ushered in and begin to seize the opportunities for participation and representation in governance that it provides.

It is a new day. We have to renew ourselves and our conception of ourselves as Kenyans to meet it.

The sun is shining (literally, after weeks of cold and gloom). It is a new day.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This story first appeared in The East African.
* L. Muthoni Wanyeki is executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.