Upcoming Referendum

Hi all! How are you?

Things here in Kenya are great. This coming week is a very important one as on Wednesday, August 4th, and likely on the 5th as well (because often voting here takes more than one day due to long travel times, lines, the time it takes to tally the votes, etc.) are the dates of the referendum which will decided whether the NEW proposed constitution of Kenya is enacted or not. It is quite contentious actually, with heated debates in both the YES and NO camps.

We had a speaker in class last week about the proposed constitution. She really helped us to understand the main issues revolving around the constitution. At the core of the debate are land rights and the influence and jurisdiction of Khadis courts (Muslim courts) and abortion (which is illegal in Kenya.) Interestingly, the new constitution also cuts down on the % of the Kenyan government budget allocated for development – from 30% to 10%. This is probably the biggest drawback of the new constitution, because it would then potentially increase Kenya’s reliance on outside aid.

So this coming week will be one day of KHRC internship, class on Tuesday and then due to the referendum on Wed. and Th. My classmates and I are planning to spend the time beginning our final papers for this course. Friday we have class, on a very interesting topic – the role of human rights and “are human rights part of the problem” – in other words, discussing human rights from a critical perspective. Saturday is free, then on Sunday we head to MASAI MARAA for the SAFARI weekend! I literally cannot wait to see lions, giraffes and elephants in the wild. It may be too much for me!

I hope you are all happy, peaceful and doing well. I send all my love from Kenya!