In Kenya, grumbles from politicians who believe that they lost out in the Grand coalition cabinet named by President Mwai Kibaki last week are increasing. Critical ODM MPs like Ababu Namwamba have insisted that the Party lost out in the Cabinet appointments while other ODM MPs have said that the Party was clearly short changed because the appointments did not reflect a 50-50 power sharing arrangement as had been agreed upon during the Kofi Anan mediation talks.
The sticking point is that all the “Power Ministries” were scooped by PNU, leaving ODM with “Taka taka Ministries” that have no real significance in the governing of a country.
In Rift valley, some ODM Parliamentarians who believe that the Kalenjin were the biggest losers threatened to quit ODM and form their own political party to “fight for Kalenjin interests”. ODM supporters are fearful that the Party betrayed an important election promise for a lean Cabinet. Raila has himself been confronted in Parliament by an Assistant minister over the thorny issue of a bloated Cabinet.
The seriousness of the situation played itself out yesterday at the Kenyatta International Conference Center where both President Kibaki and Raila Odinga were meeting MPs from areas where thousands of Kenyans were suddenly converted into IDPs immediately after the post election violence.
At the meeting, serious disagreements are reported to have emerged on how the crisis of IDPs ought to be resolved. According to majority of Rif Valley MPs, there should be no attempt to resettle IDPs before the historical factors connected to the question of land ownership in the region is first resolved.
The subsequent appointment of Permanent Secretaries simply heightened the tension with both ODM and PNU MPs throwing spanners into the works. Voices that have so far not been heard forcefully are those of Kenyans in Diaspora who also seem to have lost in the grand deal.
During election campaigns, one key demand of Kenyans in Diaspora was connected to the question of dual citizenship which was supposed to be entrenched in the Constitution. A sympathizer could argue that ODM does not have full power to implement any radical changes but what is worrying is that the dual citizenship item is not even on the immediate agenda for urgent Constitutional reforms as compared to the issue of Prime Minister’s post which is already entrenched in the Constitution although it wasn’t the biggest issue before December last years.
Instead, it appears as though the dual citizenship project has been left to wait for a comprehensive review of the Bomas draft of the Constitution before it can see day light, a process that might take years as PNU and ODM continue to grumble on other issues which are of personal interest to MPs on both sides. If the Coalition collapses, the issue might as well have to wait even longer and Kenyans in Sweden who have taken up Swedish citizenship for various reasons will continue to seek and pay for visas at the Kenyan embassy to travel to their own country for an indefinite period of time.
RAISING SAME QUESTIONS WITH SAME POLITICIANS
After the Coalition, a National Board was set up “to sell Kenya” abroad. According to some Kenyans in Diaspora like Pastor Beatrice Kamau in Stockholm, it was a big mistake that Kenyans in Diaspora were left out of the consultation conduit when it came to appointment of members of the Board.
Beatrice argued that majority of those who were appointed in the Board have not spent any substantial portion of their lives outside Kenya and that under the circumstances, they were not in a position to market Kenya effectively.
Her view is that Kenyans in the United States, Britain, Canada, Scandinavia, Germany, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Nigeria, South Africa and other countries are in a much better position to market Kenya in their respective countries of residence and that what the government could have done is that it could have consulted with these Kenyans through Kenyan embassies before appointing political cronies to head these Boards.
Another loss for Kenyans abroad is that even though it looked like Kenya could go into another election if the Coalition collapses, no Constitutional provisions have been put in place to ensure that Kenyans abroad would this time round be able to vote from their bases outside the country.
Kenya Diaspora is now a well established Constituency and Presidential candidates know that their campaigns are always incomplete if they don’t gallivant to take contact with Kenya Diaspora to seek endorsement so why should members of this important Constituency continue to be disenfranchised in total violation of the Constitution which stipulates that every Kenyan has a right to vote in Civic and Parliamentary elections?
From recent media reports, it is now a well established fact that the Kenyan economy receives big boosts every month as a result of remittances by Kenyans abroad. In January this year when the country was in deep crisis, these remittances hit a record high. The point is that Diaspora Kenyans consider themselves to be part and parcel of Kenya so why should they be left out in the country’s political process?
Today, the Coalition government is still dilly dallying on how the issue of IDPs ought to be handled while for Kenyans abroad, millions of Kenyan shillings continue to be raised and sent directly to IDPs. In Stockholm, the Bagarmossen church raised about a quarter million Kenyan shillings which was sent directly to a Catholic Church in Kenya to help IDPs as politicians dithered. Shouldn’t Kenyans abroad rise to take their rightful place in the current political set up after years of marginalization?
The issue of Kenyans in Diaspora voting from their bases abroad is the same as the question of dual citizenship in the sense that they both need to be entrenched in the Constitution. Judging from activities of the Grand coalition government that has just been put in place, there seem to be no hurry to address the twin issues and the situation is worrying because Kenyans in Diaspora have no central representation inside the country that could directly take up these matters with the new government.
The risk is that although Kenyans in Diaspora could continue to shout through the net, very little might be achieved on the ground without active pressure and the community might find itself raising the same issues once again with the same leaders as time passes.
As the numbers of those who have lost out in the Grand coalition continue to mount, Kenyans in Diaspora appear to be part of the growing crowd and the question about what needs to be done will continue to remain relevant during the Grand coalition era.
Okoth Osewe
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