Ndugu MoonKi
Where did you lose me?
I answered you about certain provisions being struck down. I had in principal agreed with your earlier postulation that some of the provisions in the Elections Act were undemocratic.
You lost me on the notion that certain rights are completely untouchable. I am also actually unclear on what it means to strike down a part of the constitution.
I made a second point but upon reading I should have known who I was addressing and gone about it with utmost care. Let me try again: The entire Elections Act IMHO is founded on undemocratic principals. Some of the provisions curtail specific rights already granted by the constitution. I went ahead to agree with you on the Education Requirements and added a few. I then quoted the section of the offending law that I found most irritating.
What you quoted was this:
But that is in the Constitution, so I was unclear as to whether your "issues" are with the Constitution or with the Elections Act.
The number of degree holders in a population of 48 Million human beings tells you that the Presidency and other elective posts are limited to a tiny minority. If you look at the number of stand 8 leavers who fail to reach form four again you realize just how we should stop telling those humans that they have EQUAL opportunity.
Obviously, I agree that the degree requirement is absurd. And, yes, the Elections Act (a creature of MPs) does have parts that are problematic with respect to the Constitution.
Sovereignty we are told lies with the people of Kenya. Yet they are prevented from electing whoever they so wish to elect. A group of professional thieves, murderers and deal makers tell them that unless they excel in Modern Ritualism they have no chance.
I really don't know what exactly the "sovereignty of the people" means, but most places will have some requirements for who can stand for office. In Kenya, because of our history, we thought it useful to have "Chapter 6". True, we have ignored it---whence the influential "thieves" and "murderers" that you complain of---but that's quite a different matter, and I can't think of many who are unhappy with Chapter 6 on the grounds that the sovereign people should be entitled to elect thieves, murderers, etc.