A Poke In The Eye For Kibaki

After a relatively violent campaign, Kenya's draft constitution looks set to be rejected tonight. The document which fails to curb the powers of President Mwai Kibaki, has been opposed by opposition and some government MP's.

Many Kenyan's, suprised the opposition candidate had been allowed to take victory in 2002, have grown disillusioned with Kibaki. He had promised constitutional reform within a hundred days of taking office, redistributing his power back to parliament. However any change took much longer to materialise, and what has been offered is far from radically different.

Kenya is still infested with corruption, a hangover from the dictatorial regime of Daniel Arap Moi. However without a doubt, press freedom has sharply increased in recent years and an opposition victory in this referendum would boost the nation's Democractic credentials.

Unfortunately the group most likely to gain out of the whole reform debarcle are corrupt politicians from the former ruling party. The 2007 legislative vote could see a return for the KANU bloc. The extent to which they would pursue their own past crimes, if in power, is likely to be much less vigourous than that of the current government. Kibaki's power-trip may therefore have more harmful implications for Kenya than at first appears apparent...