Sunday Standard
20 November 2005
Nairobi — The debate is over - or is it - and Kenneth Stanley Njindo Matiba, the man who gave the clamour for multi-party politics a new lease of life has been missing in action.
Although Matiba's absence was not noticed it is his consistency on how to draft a new constitution that has endeared him to his waning supporters.
Matiba only emerged when the Wako Draft was published and surprised many when he dismissed both the Bomas Draft and the Wako Draft arguing that the entire process was flawed.
The former Kiharu MP, who in 1992 almost crippled Kanu's hold onto power, has all along argued that religious groups should have been left to draw up a new constitution and that the Bomas parley was not representative of the Kenyan populace.
Matiba will not be voting for or against the Draft since he is not a registered voter.
That is why he had to surrender his Kiharu parliamentary seat during the 1997 General Election insisting that the elections were flawed and that the then Moi Government lacked political legitimacy to call elections.
A man who once enjoyed a near fanatical support of the populous Gema vote - apart from Meru and Nyeri, which are traditional Kibaki supporters - Matiba has moved from an enigma to near irrelevant.
It was Matiba who dared Kanu by calling an unregistered rally in Kamukunji (the famous Saba Saba Rally) and refused to apply for a permit.
But in the quest for a new constitution Matiba was a lone ranger and usually was at loggerheads with groupings that coalesced around the National Convention Executive Council (NCEC), which was the main machine that sustained the clamour for a new Constitution.
It was only Matiba's Ford Asili Party that decided to boycott the 1997 General Election protesting the failure to institute a level playing-ground through comprehensive constitutional changes.
Although a Ford Asili faction led by Martin Shikuku went ahead to nominate candidates it perished at the ballot box with all its candidates.
Only Njeru Kathangu won a seat on a Ford Asili ticket as Matiba's loyal lieutenants led Paul Wanyange and Ngengi Muigai founded a new party Saba Saba Asili which was housed in Matiba's Marlborough House in Westlands.
Despite his failing health, a result of a stroke he suffered in detention, Matiba has from this base opposed moves led by either parliament or civil society to write a constitution.
His famous take was: "Hii maneno tuachie makanisa".
Matiba has always played solo game. When Kibaki, Mr Kijana Wamalwa and Mrs Charity Ngilu formed the National Alliance for Change before the 2002 elections they decided to approach Matiba to give them a jolt. But rather than listen to them at his Riara home Matiba accused them of operating on undemocratic principles.
But it was because the three supported the minimum reforms that were proposed by Moi ahead of the 1997 elections much to the chagrin of Matiba.
They had also refused to join him in boycotting the elections.
There was a feeling then that Matiba was the only man who can galvanise the Murang'a and Kiambu voters to vote its way instead of running away with Uhuru Kenyatta then emerging as Kanu's candidate.
As Bomas went underway Matiba dismissed it as a "big joke" and said that certain politicians were using the constitutional review to create executive positions for themselves, "through the back-door".
"Observing what is happening at the Bomas of Kenya, one is moved to ask for divine intervention - a great tragedy is in the making for the country," said Matiba.
Matiba's arguments were that Bomas was dominated by politicians and groups, whose main interests appeared to be "self-aggrandisement and aggressive and shameless jostling for power and personal positions".
He said it was "catastrophic for this country that the spirit of the conference is galvanised by arguments about positions in government that politicians promised each other before elections To base a constitution on such interests surely spells doom for the country."
Matiba has always questioned the composition of the delegates and their selection criteria, saying the conference was not representative.
On the district delegates Matiba would say that some delegates came from "illegal districts". Moi had created several new districts but had not gazetted them as required by law.
Although he had always said he would lead Kenyans in rejecting the Bomas outcome Matiba has missed a chance to offer a third dimension to the on going Banana and Orange campaign.
But it is his consistency all through the 15-year clamour for a new constitution that will always be remembered.
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