The obsession with power and how it will be shared in the revised harmonised draft constitution -- a presidential or parliamentary system -- is creating unnecessary alarm among the Kenyan public. It is also distracting from other more contentious issues but poorly represented issues that could derail the reform entirely.

Here are some examples:

1. Declaring Nairobi the capital of Kenya is easily the most contentious issue in the draft. Adding salt to injury, the draft says also that the seat of Parliament shall be in Nairobi.

Obviously, this is unacceptable to the people who live at the country's farthest corners. Nairobi has undeservingly enjoyed an inequitable share of population, crime, trickery and tourism, as well as the benefits that accrue from them, for sitting innocently to the south of Kenya and pretending to be Africa's centre.

Nairobi's advantage that extends to people with plots, businesses and buses has roiled into a historical injustice for the rest of the country. In fact, the centre of Kenya is the Kora national reserve, which should be the constitutional headquarters -- the seat of power and so on.

It has the land; it has the animals and a cool climate. It could one day compete with national Nairobi as the sight of the capital city. The alternative would be to Capital of Kenya should be a moving target -- rotating every electoral cycle to the area that has not produced a president. Parliament would also be rotational to bring the Government closer to the people, so that they may feel the warmth of its blanket.

2. The domineering presence of Ford Kenya's symbol of a lion on both the coat of arms and the public seal is discriminatory to other political parties that have symbols such as a rabbit, a torch, a cup, a flower, a bell or an orange.

Also favoured in the draft is Kanu's cockerel crowing on the coat of arms and the seal. If the constitution is going to embrace everyone, then the symbols of all the 100 or so parties must be in the instruments that represent Kenya.

And, while on the matter of national symbols, there is an uncanny resemblance in the design and colour of the national flag and the one used by the Kenya African National Union. This offends those of us who have been patiently waiting for the registration of Communist Party of Kenya.

3. The clause about a popular constitution amendment requiring a million signatures can provoke sections of the country to go on a breeding spree just so that they may knock out parts of the law that offends them.

In 10 years, it is estimated that Kenya's population has grown by 12 million. If a group were to start having designs on constitution change, they would breed for 20 years, then there would be anarchy via an amendment.

4. The requirement that Parliament reach a quorum is not only unnecessary, but also discriminatory, obnoxious and a blatant attempt to gag legislators and treat them like minors. Requiring that the quorum be a quarter of all the MPs is simply nonsensical.

Suppose that the national assembly had 240 members. For it to raise a quorum, there would have to be 60 members in the chamber. Why, who would be counting all those people all the time and ensuring that they are not 56, 59 or 54?

Besides, MPs have more important business outside Parliament than inside -- throwing parties, demanding compensation for squatters who own tea factories and generally fighting for the common mwananchi.

5. The draft openly discriminates against foreigners on land ownership because it stops them from instantly acquiring citizenry through marriage and owning land for more than 99 years.

This will obviously undermine the rights and aspirations of all the Kenyans keen to marry an exotic, have a foreign business partner and so on.

Further, it could have a negative impact on tourism -- the seduction that begins the business or the marriage.

Anyone who says that the state and religion should be separate, as this draft says, has no understanding of the country's history and culture. What happens to those long-winded prayers on national holidays, and at the official opening of Parliament? What happens to the national anthem that invokes God's name?

Any chairperson, even of the village, cattle-dip committee, has a tie-breaking vote. The draft has raided Parliament and escaped with the Speaker's tie-breaking vote. If the Speaker does not have power to even vote, what would happen in situations where he or she wants to become the de facto leader of government business?

8. Using borders recognised by international law, as proposed by the draft, could provoke the international community to gang up and expand Kenya into Somalia and Djibouti, thus lowering the country's general life expectancy, gross domestic product and other development indicators.

9. A huge oversight of the recall clause for MPs does not make any provisions for the refund of money used in the campaigns.

10. Here is something about the English of the revised draft. It does not have the right ring. It is the English of "is" and "was", which does not quite capture the Kenyan people's cogitative habits. The world will laugh at us!

With all these contentious issues sticking out of the revised draft, the Parliamentary Select Committee, which is relooking at the document, should advise the Committee of Experts to give Kenya 10 drafts, each providing an option for the popular will to be known.