« Star network | Main | 1:51:00/159 »
January 11, 2006
Tough year for constitutions, part IV
2005 was, as I wrote before, a tough year for constitutions. Yet I didn't mention the Kenyan draft constitution voters shot down in November.
BBC News online is now running an article covering opposition leader Odinga's claims that he fears for his life. Sounds a bit rougher than what happened in France.
According to the BBC, Kenyans also voted against the draft constitution because:
Although it was not a vote of confidence on his three year-old administration, there is no question that many Kenyans will have voted "No" in part because they are disillusioned with the government which has been mired in corruption.
That would then explain why Kibaki sympathizers would like to shut down the opposition. The only other thing you have to assume as an ignorant outside observer like yours truly is that politics in Kenya are handled by violent strongmen. The CIA doesn't put it that way, though their article does mention corruption, Kibaki's nearly 2/3 majority victory during elections (significantly smaller margin than Chirac if you remember), and that the Kenyans in 2003 had made progress against the corruption.
Unlike the French news media, the BBC doesn't entirely discredit the idea that some Kenyans might, unlike busy legislators who represent their constituency, might actually have read the text and come to their own conclusions.
Posted by Mark at January 11, 2006 07:23 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mcraig.org/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1232