As I have insisted in the past, this Committee of Experts (CoE) is a disaster. In fact, we should change its official name from CoE to CoQ: That is, “Committee of Quacks”. No. We should get dramatic. We should charge them all with high treason.
And I say so because their braggadocio will drive us to the brink of war. More so because they suffer from the “Messiah Complex”. A messiah does not consult. His instructions are from the “gods”.
And this is how the committee views itself. Its constitution is from the “gods” expressed through the “cleverness” of their heads. This is why they ignored our one million responses to the draft.
Our intention was to express the raw spirit of the nation. According to statistics, they read 50,000 responses per day. But in the end, they changed nothing.
Why? They knew what they wanted. They gave it in the first draft. They repeated it in the second draft. They will give it in the referendum draft. In sum, this is a rogue committee on mission.
In fact, it is a threat to national security. It must be disbanded. And the group to drive this is the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC).
Now you must allow me to address the PSC. Greetings! We are outraged by your salary increments.
But I hope you enjoy it with a clear conscience. On the matter at hand, you are our last frontier. If you falter, the country fails. And although we know you as greedy people, some of you are actually Christians. The good Muslims amongst you are also noted.
In your religious narratives, the story is told of a beautiful woman called Esther. She was an orphan adopted by her uncle, a man known as Mordecai. One day, Xerxes, the King of Persia, wanted a queen. And so the beautiful girls in the land were paraded before him. When he saw Esther, he was mesmerised. Without looking any further, he made her queen.
But there was a problem; his new beauty was a Jew, not Persian. Spying the opportunity, clever Esther did not reveal her “tribe”. She accepted the “queenship” knowing too well she was a foreigner.
Then one day, an evil and powerful Persian known as Haman decided to kill all the Jews. This was part of Palace intrigues. And not knowing that the queen was a Jew, King Xerxes agreed.
It meant that his queen would also die in the decree. But before he could sign it, Mordecai intervened. He convinced Esther to confront the King on the matter. If she contradicted the King, she risked dying. If she did not, she would also die through the decree. She had no option.
And so she decided to confront. After a number of parties, she told the King that someone was planning to kill her. The King was furious beyond. He ordered for the head of this traitor.
But little did he know that this was his best friend and second in command. When they revealed his identity, it was too late. He had to die. Esther’s gamble paid off.
Generally, I am not an expert on “God matters”. But when I was a boy, my late mother literary beat me into joining Sunday school. And on this Bible story, my Sunday school teacher gave me two lessons.
As you go on retreat starting tomorrow, I want to draw your attention to both. The first is about Haman, the evil Persian: “... if you dig a hole for your enemy, dig a shallow one. If you dig a deep one, you might just fall in it yourself”. And this is what happened to Haman. Instead of killing the Jews, they killed him.
Similarly, if you go into this retreat to dig holes for your opponents, you will fall in them yourselves. Choose a win-win approach. Her second lesson was on Esther. When Mordecai approached her, he told her “...Do not think you will escape ... if you remain silent, deliverance will come from another place.
But who knows, maybe you came to the King’s palace for such a time as this?” In other words, if you fail to take the right action, our deliverance will come from somewhere else.
However, maybe you are in the PSC for “... such a time as this”. If this is true, you have only three options.
One, you must take us to a “Yes-Yes” referendum. A Yes-No referendum can only plant the seed of destruction. But how do you do this? Borrow from the church’s submissions to CoE. Instead of giving us one draft, give us two drafts.
One draft should propose an Executive President, the other an Executive Prime Minister. Everything else should be the same. At the referendum, instead of voting against either, we should vote in support of one.
This way, and whichever we choose, we are assured of a new constitution this year. Two, if option one fails, you must abandon the review process altogether. Similarly, you must disband the CoE. And I say so because, to pursue a defective process is foolhardy.
Moreso because the president and the prime minister will be on opposing camps. And if they are, it will be impossible for them to work together after the referendum.
In fact, PNU and not ODM will pull out of the coalition. Contrary to what people think, we will not go into an election. That part of the Peace Accord was deleted.
So long as executive power is in the hands of the president, government will continue. In fact, this will be a coup against the Raila wing of ODM.
If the Accord collapses, they can be kicked out. But is this possible? No idea! Is it probable -- constitutionally? Most definitely yes! If you take the path of the “quacks”, we will end up here.
Your last option is also borrowed from the church. In my considered opinion, the CoE process will collapse for a fact. And when it does, we lose. If this is so, you need a fallback position.
This is why you must listen to the prophetic voice of the church. As your Plan “B”, develop some minimum reforms. Should the CoE process collapse, make Plan “B” your stabilisation package.
