Kenyan referendum 'a farce'

2005-11-12 20:22

Nairobi - Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai has dismissed this month's referendum on Kenya's new constitution as a "farce" that should be suspended to avoid splitting the east African nation.

Kenyans are set to vote on November 21 on the first major changes to the country's constitution since independence from Britain in 1963.

The campaigns for and against have sparked bloody fighting across the country and even split the government of President Mwai Kibaki.

"What we are witnessing is a scenario where a small clique from both sides wants to impose the view on Kenyans," Maathai told Saturday's issue of People Daily newspaper.

"The referendum is a farce as it is a betrayal to the wishes of the people of Kenya," said Maathai, a Kenyan deputy environment minister, who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

By Saturday four people had died as a result of bullet wounds in the port city of Mombasa, a day after riot police battled opponents of the draft constitution, bringing the death toll to at least nine killed in constitution related-violence.

Maathai, who was among those who fought for pluralism in the 1990s, suggested that the plebiscite should be suspended to allow a consensus on the sticking points.

"The cost of reaching a consensus and healing the political and ethnic wounds that have already been opened is much less before the referendum is held than after it has taken place," she said.

Absolute presidential powers

"The constitution-making process is fraught with disagreements," said Maathai, insisting that she supports neither of the camps.

"In my opinion this debate has little to do with the document and a lot to do with power," she added in comments published by the Standard newspaper.

Citing an example of the European Union, whose constitution was rejected recently, Maathai told Standard: "The constitution is not something you can rush - you'll do more damage."

Kibaki is leading the "yes" campaign and insists the draft addresses the concerns of all Kenyans.

The political opposition, which is led by the son of Kenya's revered founding president Jomo Kenyatta and includes members of Kibaki's coalition government, is calling for a "no" vote as the draft gives nearly absolute presidential powers.

Kibaki, who came to power on a platform of giving the country a new constitution, has spurned calls from church and civil society leaders to postpone the plebiscite.

Recent opinion polls gave opponents of the draft a 10% lead.

International donors have decried the rising violence and urged both sides to show restraint, but their call seems have gone unheeded.

Retired Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, who launched the exercise of revising the basic law nearly a decade ago, has opposed the draft saying it "creates animosity, suspicion and mistrust among the people".

- AFP