Yesterday, Kenya’s 2010 Constitution turned 15.
But this was no birthday for wananchi.
The cake was cut in high places.
The feast, as always, reserved for the political elites.
Inachoma….! Inachoma….! Back in 2010, it was served sizzling hot…!
Rights, freedoms, devolution wafting through the air like aromatic Mwea pishori rice. Every Kenyan was promised a taste at the national table. Expecting justice, accountability, equality on the menu.
Fifteen years later?
The food is cold, the plates empty, the promises still half-baked!
Leaders treat the Constitution like a buffet.
They pile their plates with salaries, immunity and impunity.
They dodge the healthy bitter greens: integrity and accountability.
Article 43, which promises food, health, housing?
Still untouched, like sukuma on a child’s plate.
Counties were meant to bring government services closer.
Instead, they turned into food festival.
Governors dine five-star while clinics run out of medicine.
The only thing that truly devolved?
Corruption. And now every county has its own recipe.
Wananchi are still waiting under the table.
Waiting for justice that doesn’t have to take a decade.
Waiting for hospitals that don’t need harambees.
Waiting for leaders who serve the people, not themselves.
Instead, we get stale, reheated promises every election season.
So, has the Constitution fed Kenya?
Yes! Politicians.
For wananchi? We don’t even know where the plates and spoons are.
Fifteen years in, we are still chewing tough meat.
Still waiting for reforms that were never cooked right.
Because in the end, it wasn’t the recipe that failed.
It was the chefs.
And as long as the same cooks keep stirring the pot, Kenyans will keep being served burnt stew while being told to clap for the “great recipe of 2010.”
By
Kamaru Mathenge
