Last Friday, I arrived too late in Nairobi to witness the momentous promulgation of the new Kenya constitution.

But I did not miss sensing the euphoria unleashed in the hearts of the Kenyan people by the event. Vast numbers of Kenyans flocked to Nairobi's Uhuru Park to celebrate what was billed the rebirth of the Kenyan nation.

Its colour of pomp and pageantry was girdled with the stately presence of the region's rulers that also included the indicted Omar Bashir of the Sudan. Kenyans had a legitimate reason to feel upbeat. Following the stealing of their 2007 elections, the country had whirled steeply on the edge of pent-up social explosion. Mass protests that broke out spontaneously across the country were countered with remorseless police carnage of the protestors.

The bloody actions exacerbated deep social emotions that fractured the Kenyan society, plunging the country into convulsions that nearly sucked it into irretrievable state of ethnic reprisals and anarchy.

Thanks to a deal brokered by Kofi Annan, with the behind-the-scenes prodding of the Western powers that still wield enormous influence in the country, the Kenyan politicians were compelled to avert the breakup of their country by agreeing to a coalition government. The arrangement prepared the way for a harmonious solution to the country's nagging problems.

Amidst strains, the uneasy sharing of power between the Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga factions held on to produce the now acclaimed new constitution. The very act of setting out to enact a constitution was a tacit admission by all that the past governance of Kenya had failed to meet the expectations of the people.

Despite this narrow survival of the Kenyan state through an improvised escape hatch, some forces continue to remonstrate with Kenyans to pursue what they call "the perpetrators of the 2008 political violence" purportedly to signal their disapproval of impunity. In pressing for this course, they never seem to mind that the existing delicate and tenuous balancing of relations might actually be endangered if the wounds of the strife are recklessly scratched.

In 1981, we of the NRM in Uganda took up arms against the regime in power. We believed that this was the only justifiable way to redeem our lives. Characteristically, there were barbaric reprisals by the regime on the population. Yet, when the NRA was on the verge of its final victory, we did not raise the incendiary slogan of punishing to the hilt the politicians who had hatched up the murderous assaults against Ugandans.

The success of the NRA war was its skilful engagement of the enemy. It envisaged disempowering them with armed resistance while, at the same time, reconciling with them if they gave up their ways. We realised that the most effective way to punish these scoundrels was not in promising them firing squads and incarceration, but in their being overthrown and deprived the misuse of power of the state.

The known execution by the NRM of perpetrators of brutality against the people was of people like UPC stalwart in Luwero, Alhaji Sebirumbi, and that of Kassim Obura of the notorious Naguru Public Safety Unit during Idi Amin's rule. They were executed after having been handed court sentences. Nevertheless, their executions led to a strong suspicion in Uganda of selectively carrying out court sentences by the state because no person of the same calibre has ever faced punishment.

Therefore, the insistence of "no impunity" in Kenya is obliquely ominous. It disproportionately focuses on the aftermath of the outpour of the anger of the people rather than the causes.

It does not suggest investigating those who stole the elections and the circumstances of how the thieves were sworn in hurriedly and secretly in office. Nor does it refer to the actions of brutal killings of legitimate protestors by the police. It instead targets and condemns the Kenyan people for having screamed out or groaned in pain when they were being taunted and tormented.

Elimination of the repeat of violence does not lie in witch-hunts. It rests in the process of national reconciliation embodied in the promulgated constitution.

When Kenyans attain their democratic ideals, they will broaden the unity of their country and, indeed, that of East Africa. As each of our constituent peoples struggle to deepen their sovereignty, the dream of a federated East Africa will then loom higher.

Unity of East Africa is not realisable by despotic regimes and murderous police. It is induced from the heart of freedom and mutuality of the peoples.

The author is a member of NEC (NRM) representing historicals