In August 2018 FreeKenya arose from the need to counter various hardships that Kenyans were faced with. Key to these issues was when the executive was introducing VAT on petroleum products. On 20th of September, the Executive managed to push the VAT changes acrimoniously through parliament. The supporters of FreeKenya was involved in a procession outside parliament to remind the members of parliament duty to uphold the will of the people. After the conduct of parliament to submit to the will of executive a violation of the principle of separation of powers it was clear that parliament was not independent and not representative of the will of the people.
We formulated the question to read: –
We the citizens and tax-payers of the Republic of Kenya, signed herein, heavily burdened by the escalating cost of living due to unfair taxation, do hereby INVOKE our sovereign power as enshrined in Articles 1 and 257(3) of the Constitution of Kenya, to DIRECTLY enact an amendment of the said Constitution through a referendum to:
a)ABOLISH ALL TAXATION ON BASIC AND ESSENTIAL COMMODITIES including petrol, kerosene and diesel and other items under Article 43, rationale being that since the successive have failed to agree on a comprehensive manner of delivery of Article 43 and instead only interested on tokenistic and political placement through this article and through taxation, it blocks Kenyans who by themselves are fulfilling this article on their own.
b)RESTRUCTURE THE STATE AND SYSTEM OF GOVERNANCE to ensure efficient and effective use of national resources and respect for the voice of the people.
The first question is to abolish taxes that hurt nascent personal economies of people and holds them from growing and developing their personal situations. The second we are soliciting for VIEWS of ALL KENYANS on the areas they want to be changed to meet the specifications as the second question.
RATIONALE
A referendum is a discussion surrounding issues that will be adopted into the social contract that will govern the operations of the State, how those allowed to play roles in the operation will be identified, what they are supposed to do, why, for how long and with what outcomes. These matters have suffered immerse distortions driven by the political class leadership of the referendum question. It is no wonder the processes involved have become expensive, opaque and untrusted as the politicians have taken the opportunity to advance their selfish interest at the expense of public good.
OBJECTIVES
1.Collection of signatures for the purposes of amending the Constitution of Kenya as required in Article 257 of the said Constitution.
2.Collection of views from its membership to be considered in the process of amendment of the Kenyan Constitution.
3.To produce a draft constitution amendment bill to be presented to the people of Kenya for a referendum and to follow up on the implementation of the bill and any other initiatives raised by the people under the Society.
4.Inclusion of the Kenyan society in determining the rules of their socialization.
5.Organizing of the general citizenry into conventions at the different levels of devolution, all the way to the grassroots.
6.Providing a platform where the popular will of the people can be harnessed and included in the Constitutional moment.
7.To bring to fore the discourse around other areas of cohesion and integration of Kenyan society including providing the template for an issues-based political engagement and reducing ethnic pressures and tensions.
8.To implement the resolutions of the conventions at the different levels of devolution.
9.To raise support from its membership and partners so as to facilitate its operations and achievements of its objectives.
VISION
A society where each person’s needs and expressions are fully part of the decisions and activities of a people centric State.
MISSION
To forge alliance among the people of Kenya from all walks of life to carry their needs and expressions as ingredients to create the necessary laws, institutions and cultures for the delivery of the people Centric State.
CONCLUSION
The FreeKenya platform offers a viable, constitutional and hope filling means to infuse the people feeling helpless and hopeless, with channel to recover back their State and offer the globe – where many instances of recovery of the State by the people may end in the chaos and ultimately military usurpation, a new model of constitutional recovery.
