The first salvo was fired by president Kibaki on Kenyatta Day when he claimed that the constituency boundaries should be reviewed in line with the principle of "one man one vote". Mount Kenya leaders believe the current system stifles democracy since representation is not tied to population. These legislators are committing an error against a principle called "ethics of words"; that is the use of ordinary words and concepts to represent what they cannot mean. Democracy can be practiced either on a regional representation like congressional districts in the US and constituencies in the UK or proportional representation like in South Africa. In the regional representation system, "one man one vote" is unachievable because the settlement patterns determine voting population and constituencies cannot have equal number of voters. Proportional representation provides a platform of incorporating "one man one vote" by allocating parties a certain number of representatives based on the number of votes received. Mount Kenya leaders should first agree on which system of representation should be adopted, otherwise they should not cry foul that their demands are reasonable.

The trouble is not about "one man one vote" per se but the whole concept of Kenyanness. It is bogus in every sense of the word. We don't see anybody thinking about Kenya as a country and the right of the individual citizen rather than that of a tribe. Central Kenya's demand of "one man one vote" has nothing to do with the right of all Kenyan citizens to be represented but the collective rights of a few GEMA tribes. The other fellows talking about kilometres, a knee-jerk reaction devoid of clear mandate, are also scheming for kilometres occupied by none other than their tribesmen. In the last 46 years Kenya has been independent, some Kenyans were more Kenyan than others. They have appropriated the country as personal property; they cannot now fathom others having designs on it. But the country is a common resource for all citizens and cannot be harvested by some to the exclusion of others.

Nobody wants to live under the dictatorship of a majority from one tribe and much less a dictatorship of a few. In the current system there is the dictatorship of a few elites excluding everyone else. In the proposed system some people are already spoiling for the country to become a tribal dictatorship or a religious dictatorship where the law has to be borrowed from the practice and usages of one particular community to the exclusion of others.

Kenya cannot be preserved in this state. The citizens or rather the politicians have to understand that if you stretch a balloon too thin it is bound to burst. The politicians are pulling the country in different directions and will certainly tear it apart if not stopped. If Kenya is to be preserved, there are issues that need to be resolved: should we be a federal commonwealth or not? If we accept a federal state, "one man one vote" won't infringe on the rights of others. The states will cater for the rights of the regions and cushion the other communities from dominance by the expansive GEMA vote. If we remain a centralist monolith with no direction, then some people will have to opt out. The way to prevent any acrimony over this tribal paranoia is a give-and-take process. "One man one vote" is not an unreasonable request, so GEMA should have it, but GEMA should accept a federal system with regional assemblies catering to the needs of the other communities, two houses of parliament, the current house which is reorganized to reflect "one man one vote" and an upper house with equal representation from all regions. This should be modeled in such a way that while the main tenet of universal suffrage is adhered to, the rights of some Kenyans are not trashed in favour of others.

This constitution thing is going to cost Kenyans their country and for some of us who are considered bastard citizens, that may not necessarily be a bad thing. The bastard son usually gets less inheritance or is excluded altogether if his father dies leaving a will. He has a chance to go to court and salvage something if the old man leaves no will.

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