of Bananas and Oranges: Referendum Ahead

On 21st November, Kenya will be holding a National Referendum to give Kenyans the chance to accept or reject a proposed new constitution. This will be the first democratic referendum to be held in Kenya and this does bring an interesting, sometimes shocking and rather multi-dimensional dynamic to it.

The referendum has brought a huge divide in opinion and choice among Kenyans. The YES side supporting the new constitution is fronted as the Banana camp (symbolized by...yes, a banana) and the side strongly opposing it - the NO side - is the Orange camp (need I say they are symbolized by the Orange). The country's politicians are also split down the middle. Hardcore government supporters, led by the President himself, are Bananas while the Opposition and a collection of perennially rebellious government ministers and politicians are Orange "damu" (hardcore orange) .

Apart from sounding like a grocery store or a really crappy fruit salad, my biggest problem with this referendum is that is has been overly politicized. This mainly means that the referendum is being used a stage to flex political muscle while failing to address the content of the actual constitutional issues. Here are the highlights in the run-up to the big voting day:

- Right direction: In October, a televised debate was held to bring Banana and Orange politicians to one forum. This was a huge step in the right direction, but I still felt that they were a bit too politically inclined and it wasn't still clear in my mind what the issues of discussion vis-a-vis the constitution were. Another debate will be held with less than a week to vote and I hope that it will be more content-oriented and less of a political shouting match.

- Violence sucks: This past weekend, we saw the ugly side of the run-up to the referendum. One politician had his car burned to a crisp while campaigning for his side. Unnecessary and mindless actions from whoever was involved. Over the weekend in the highly politically charged Western Kenya, four people died when violence erupted in a referendum-related rally, with politicans on either side trading accusations and counter-accusations around this. There have been other acts of vandalism and backward-mindedness that I won't even give any time of day/night on cyberspace. I am sure a lot of the people making trouble have never touched a copy of the constitution in their lives (or can't even spell constitution) and need to do so before they think of shish-kebabing a Toyota Prado...or a dude for that matter.

- Edging on the ridiculous: There have been stories of people going to the extreme to show their allegiance to the Banana or Orange camp. At political rallies, politicians and people in attendance have been seen mercilessly eating bananas or oranges at their respective camps. There are stories of people not allowing oranges or bananas in their houses, depending on who they side with. A story is told of one guy who went for lunch and got served a fruit salad that contained a fruit he didn't side with. Let's just say that this guy went bananas when he found oranges in his fruit salad.

- Who do I side with? At this moment, I am still going through the pros and cons of both constitutions. I have chosen to blog on the lead-up to the referendum rather than take sides or share those pros/cons on my blog. At the end of the day, I am still very skeptical of whether majority of Kenyans will vote based on informed decisions around the constitution.

- Demo-crazy: This referendum, in my opinion, has been a reflection of Kenya's relative immaturity in democratic politics. Example? Some Banana proponents are calling for the President to fire the rebel ministers in the Orange camp for fiercely taking a stance against his. Come on! That's what a democracy is! And what fun would there be if everyone in the Government all got along? Everyone knows that some of the world's most exciting democracies are built on the fact that there are strong believers in extremely polar schools of thought and that does make it interesting for each of these guys every morning when they wake up scratching their heads...and for us every evening when we watch all their crazy antics on the news !

- What Direction? : The Civil Education campaign that was planned to ensure that Kenyans actually understood the content of the proposed constitution vs the existing one has been, in my opinion, very low-key and at worst a failure. This hasn't been helped by the fact that the referendum has been overly politicized. The media have made the effort to avail simplified copies of the proposed constitution in the dailies, facilitate live debates etc. Some workshops are being held around the country to sensitize the same. I'm also skeptical of how effective this campaign really is in effectively educating the public about the constitution.

I still feel that politicians have a big role to play in this, but they have been going about it the wrong way. In a perfect world, they should ideally ensure that Kenyans are initially educated on the issues that they will go to vote for come November 21st before taking sides and trying to woo Kenyans to these sides. Instead, both sides are using this referendum as a political vehicle and guess what will happen? A lot of Kenyans will vote Yes or No based on whether their favourite politician..or if the politician from their ethnic group sides on Yes or No...And not based on the fact that the decision they make is based solely on the content of the proposed/existing constitution that will affect their lives and those of generations to come.