Nairobi — The draft constitution cobbled together by the Committee of Experts is now public. But the question is if it will ultimately be the graveyard for Kenyan politicians. Will the politicians, as usual, derail the country's quest for a new constitution and consequently a reconstituted state?

Will the politicians see the old constitution as the one that reflects their material and political interests, and mobilise Kenyans to support it? Will they this time get away with their divisive tactics, or will Kenyans reject their machinations and pave the way for the overthrow, through the ballot, of the politicians?

One undeniable fact is that most Kenyans want a new constitution. Prof Yash Pal Ghai's team confirmed this. If it were not so, the politicians would not keep the quest for a new constitution as one issue they cannot ignore.

What the politicians have done for two decades now is to keep the issue alive as they sabotage all efforts to give the country a comprehensive constitution.

AFTER TWO DECADES OF FUTILE PROMISES by the politicians, can we say Kenyans will not be bamboozled into rejecting whatever draft constitution the Committee of Experts comes up with after we give our responses to their initial draft within the next 30 days of its publication?

Kenyans can still be divided on grounds of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, region, class, generation and even clan.

The politicians have perfected the art of these divisions. False consciousness based on the divisions is still healthy in Kenya.

We will underestimate at our own peril the native cunning of our politicians, who are adept at invoking the divisions to block issues of national interest such as the new constitution.

If there was any time critical to the nation to confront the divisions head on, it is now. But how do we do this?

We should not rubbish the draft as some people have already done. If we do this, we shall actually give the politicians more ammunition for torpedoing the draft. We should instead decide what is positive in the draft, what we can support as well as what we have problems with.

We should not repeat the mistakes of the past, in which we rejected a draft constitution, resulting in the nation losing provisions important for our social transformation.

This strategy has already been undertaken by the Katiba Sasa campaign. The drive has drawn 11 cardinal principles that form the basis of interrogating the draft.

We should engage the Committee of Experts on the remaining contentious issues, and mobilise the people to ensure a consensus. The secular and religious lobby groups as well as the private sector have a critical role to play in this effort. Other Kenyans ought to be involved as well.

We need to persuade political parties to be involved as well. It is said that the Committee of Experts has all along ignored parties, which now wish to pay back in kind.

But it is only the parties that are capable of such rationalisation in the protection of the old Constitution. For once, our parties should realise that they have, for the past two decades, promised us a new constitution, and that now is the time to deliver.

We should also make clear to them that they need not allow themselves to be bullied by the bigger colleagues. A group of any of them can still act in the national interest.

Constitution-making is fundamentally a political process. All groups agitating for a new constitution should realise that it is time to use this debate for a new constitution to make Kenyans know that the current politicians are anti-reform and against a new constitution.

THE EVIDENCE IS SIMPLY OVERWHELMING. Is this not the time that social movements of change in this country can use the referendum as a struggle for political power?

If social movements can mobilise Kenyans to counter the politicians' manipulations, what a great way to make the political leaders irrelevant? What a great way, too, to mobilise Kenyans to vote out this group of leaders!

We should always remember that, to get us a new constitution, there must be the right amount of political will. Right now, it does not exist among the current politicians.

If we make the debate on the draft constitution and the subsequent referendum the graveyard for the politicians, there will be the necessary political will to usher in a new democratic constitution for Kenya.