So what does an engaged citizen look like?

BY MZALENDO CONTRIBUTOR

Change is first and foremost a matter of personal responsibility, someone must take the initiative for the change process to begin. – Framework for Change (2010)

“Used to be that a politician could promise you a chicken in every pot—now we want a Constitution in every home.” – Anonymous (2010)

I took a small step towards change yesterday when I attended the launch of the Citizens Framework For Change at the Louis Leakey Auditorium of the National Museums of Kenya. The framework was the product of collaboration between Fahamu Trust, the Society for International Development, the Swedish Embassy in Kenya (holding the European Union presidency), the Delegation of the European Union in Kenya, and a wide range of people interested in reform: activists, civil society, and concerned citizens.

The event, officiated by Sweden’s Ambassador to Kenya, launched a 20 page booklet on Frameworks for Change and Citizen Engagement, as well as a comprehensive report from the 2009 conference discussing ‘Reflections on Change For Kenya.’ The Booklet included excerpts from interviews with Kenyans who had changed the way things were in their jobs, towns, villages, and cities.

I have never attended such a meeting before, and felt a bit nervous walking in to the auditorium. Meetings are for activists. I am not an activist. I have always seen myself as a standard 9-to-5er, who reads about activism in the papers. Or doesn’t. Usually I prefer cartoons. I had never been to a meeting officiated by an Ambassador of anywhere. The closest I have gotten to Sweden is taking a ride in a Volvo. Yet here I was. Where to sit? What to wear? Did I look like I belonged? After an hour long video on “Making Change,” three panelists, all “change agents”, discussed what change meant as the country looks ahead to implementing the new Constitution. According to the Framework, citizens are the owners and drivers of change, and it is a continuous process, in which we must engage. The video had a similar message: looking at Kenya right after the 2007 post-election violence, and trying to reflect on what change meant, what had gone wrong, and what had gone right.

So what does an engaged citizen look like? After the referendum, news reports quoted politicians who described themselves as giants in the local press. Yesterday, though, I realized the giants in Kenya are the people who decide to do something about the things that make them weep. Ruth Mumbi, who is active in grassroots mobilization of women, spoke about setting up a Women’s Parliament because of her primary school classmate, whose husband was killed before his child’s eyes. “It made me weep, and I had to do something about it, even if nobody believed anything could be done.” Starting an organization was difficult. “Hatukujua vile kuandika ma-Requests for Proposals—but we had to stop agonizing and start organizing.” That, my friends, is a giant. The grass roots mobilization against apathy, against impunity, and against a political culture that makes promises without keeping them was amazing to hear. It was not about glowing statistics and lists of tremendous changes—it was about engaging people around issues that affect their lives, and seeking solutions in “pro-people politics.”

The momentum about change and devolution is not merely restricted to politicians fighting for county, governor, parliamentary, civic, and other seats. The momentum is in the wallets and the ambitions of Kenyans on the street. “When people were handing out the draft Constitution for free, nobody was out looking for copies. Now, people are lining up outside the Government Printer’s Office, putting down Kshs. 250 to get a copy of their own Constitution.” I heard those words from Najib Hafsin, a human rights activist from the Coast region, and felt moved by the pride in his voice, and the sense that change can start with a Kshs 250 investment in the document that sets out what it means to be a citizen and a participant in your country’s governance.  Change can start from dozens of young men and women who had left their KCSE certificates gathering dust who are now enrolling in colleges and institutions because they want to qualify for jobs as the local economies in their counties expand.

I left the auditorium feeling humbled and inspired. Frameworks for change are launched despite traffic, dust, detours and construction. They are launched in pocket-book size booklets, that you can carry around and read on the matatu on the way home, and think about. They are launched by looking at the faces of change, and realizing that it takes a person, any person—and it might as well be you. You are never ready to be a change agent though. So get used to feeling too small for the task. Then get up and do something about it. Next stop: Government Printing Office: I need my copy of the Constitution.

Posted by Mzalendo Editor on Sept. 13, 2010

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