Sabotage by political actors is Kenya’s Constitution’s real enemy

It is fitting that on this 15th anniversary of the 2010 Constitution we reflect on the journey we have covered in our attempt to make Kenya a truly law based nation. It is 15 years since we, the Kenyan people, gave ourselves a new constitutional order. This Constitution was born not merely of political negotiation but of sacrifice, struggle, and the yearning of a nation for dignity, justice, and a future that honours our humanity.

We celebrate not just to celebrate a document but also to renew our covenant.

The Constitution was not a gift from the political class. It was extracted from reluctant hands by the will of the people. It emerged from the ashes of State repression, detention without trial, political assassinations, land injustices, tribal clashes, and the systematic theft of our nation’s wealth. Many of us, some who are alive today, others no longer with us, paid a personal price for daring to imagine a different Kenya.

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As someone who was detained under the old order for advocating for multiparty democracy and the rule of law, I remember those dark days not to wallow in nostalgia, but to remind ourselves that what we now take for granted; freedom of expression, an independent judiciary and devolved government was once considered subversive.

When we speak of the Constitution, we must distinguish between its letter and its spirit. The letter is the written word, Chapter One to Chapter 18, laying out rights, responsibilities, institutions, and procedures. But the spirit is deeper. It is found in the Preamble. It is found in Article 10’s national values. It is found in Article 1, where sovereignty is vested not in Parliament, not in the Executive, but in the people themselves.

The spirit of the Constitution demands transparency, participation, justice, equity, accountability, and the protection of the weak from the excesses of the strong.
And now we must ask: Are we living the Constitution? Or have we merely memorised its articles while abandoning its ideals?

We have seen worrying trends: Disregard for court orders. Weaponisation of law enforcement. Budgeting that ignores the social rights in Article 43. A growing gap between governors and the governed. A presidency that increasingly behaves like the imperial one we sought to dismantle.

Our youth, many of whom were children in 2010, are now standing up, demanding accountability, jobs, dignity. Their voices, heard loudly this year in the streets and on social media, are part of the Constitution’s living soul. It is they who are now holding the baton of civic vigilance.

The Constitution is not self-implementing. It demands courageous citizens and principled leadership. And so, I offer four imperatives:
1. Protect the Judiciary: An independent judiciary is the last refuge of the weak against the mighty. Undermining it is a return to tyranny.
2. Respect Devolution: The people of Kenya desired power brought closer to them. Let us defend devolution against recentralising tendencies and corruption in county governments.
3. Uphold Constitutional Morality: Not every legal act is moral. Leaders must measure their actions against the ethical demands of Chapter Six.
4. Let the People Lead: As Article 1 reminds us, sovereign power belongs to the people. That is not a slogan. It is a warning. When government ceases to serve the people, the people have a constitutional right and duty to act.

This 15 anniversary is not just a commemoration. It is a call to conscience. We must ask: What kind of country do we want by the 20th anniversary in 2030? Will we have restored faith in the Constitution, or reduced it to a hollow ritual?

I hear calls from the political elite calling for a new constitutional referendum to introduce what is being referred to as “consensus democracy” I respectfully submit that there is nothing so fundamentally wrong with the 2010 Constitution as to require major changes. Let’s not mince words. Kenya is not suffering from a constitutional deficiency. We are suffering from a leadership crisis. The 2010 Constitution remains one of the most progressive frameworks in the world, anchored in human rights, separation of powers, and the devolution of resources and authority. It’s real enemy has not been in it’s structure; it has been sabotage. Sabotage by political actors who, having failed to rise to the level of the law, now wish to drag the law down to their level.

The renewed push for “broad-based power sharing” is a red herring. It is not about unity. It is not about inclusion. It is a survival strategy born not from conviction but from fear. Let’s be honest. In 2022 we elected a class of leaders who lack not only the intellectual depth to appreciate the Constitution, but also the ethical commitment to defend it. Their solution to every political setback has been not to fix their politics, but to change the rules. Let us unpack this so-called “consensus democracy”. It is a vague term, undefined in our legal or political tradition. What proponents seem to mean by it is a form of governance where power is not won through competition but shared through elite pacts. In short, it is rule by political accommodation, not popular mandate. The dangers of such a model are obvious. It will kill the opposition, erase the role of the citizen, and institutionalise impunity. When power is divorced from the people’s vote, what remains is oligarchy, not democracy.

Our democracy, as formulated in our 2010 Constitution, recognises and protects political pluralism, citizen sovereignty, the right to dissent, and the accountability of those in power. Elections are central to this model because they allow voters to reward or punish their leaders. But a class of political actors who no longer command public trust and who have serious legal questions hanging over their heads now want to replace this system with something they can control from boardrooms.

This is not reform, it is regression. To be clear, political negotiation is not inherently bad. Kenya’s history is full of moments where talks were necessary to prevent collapse. But every time we replace justice with elite deals, we set the country back. The 2008 National Accord was justified by post-election violence. BBI tried and failed to manufacture a similar crisis to justify constitutional overhaul.

Now in 2025, a new set of elites is again playing with fire, suggesting that elections no longer matter and that legitimacy can be forged in closed-door meetings rather than at the ballot box.

This is reckless. It is deeply ironic. The same leaders who built their careers shouting about democracy are now working to extinguish it. Why? Because they can not win in 2027. Not in a fair contest. Not with the baggage they now carry. And so, they promise to change the game. They want a system where elections don’t matter, where governance is forged through elite consensus, and where no one is ever really in opposition, only waiting for their turn at the trough. 

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