By Elisha Ongoya
Again, I have been thinking of a sociologically realistic legal solution to Kenya’s current problem.
What about enacting the Inclusivity Act as the first order of business upon swearing in of the newly elected Parliament. The long title of the statute will be ‘An Act of Parliament to Create a Feeling of Inclusion Among All Kenyan Communities in National and County Affairs’.
My take, and I may be wrong, is that all the tensions now being experienced in parts of the country in the name of an incredible election may be veiled attacks against a long held feeling of exclusion.
The proposed statute will create an obligation on the national and county government to map out all regional communities of interest in their areas of jurisdiction. This mapping out will be done by technical teams of anthropologists (strictly no lawyers). It will create a further obligation for each tier of government to supply an annual report published in the Gazette and debated in all houses of parliament and county assemblies.
The inception report must set out the strategic capital investments and public appointments existing in each regional community of interest. Subsequent reports will then set out deliberate affirmative action measures towards creating equality taking into account disparities revealed by the inception report.
There shall then be annual status reports. Can we afford to continue pretending that only politicians divide us at election time when, in fact, we harbour deep seated feelings of exclusion at individual and community levels?
