If as I argue, our common dream as a society is “the pursuit of national happiness”, it is our duty to protect this vision, and to do what is necessary to realize it through the good and the bad days. The first step towards achieving national happiness is recognizing that we are one identity, one nation, one country, Kenya irrespective of our ethnic affiliations and embracing it with enthusiasm. This behooves me to revisit the concept of the social contract between the government and the rest of Kenyans.
Kenya’s Social Contract
The social contract is an implied agreement through which all the communities form the nation of Kenya. These communities agree to maintain the Kenyan social order by giving up some natural rights [such as the right to self defense] to one overall institution, the government, which in turn forms supporting political, economic and social institutions such as the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. This means the legitimacy of the government, and of these supporting institutions is derived from the consent of all the communities, they who are governed. In the resulting trade-off, the people get a ‘government’ and the government in turn obtains the ‘sovereign will’ of the people to govern them.
In my beloved Kenya, the sovereign will is defined by the majority, a concept better known as democracy. But with one important caveat, although we, the majority, agree to the terms of the social contract, implicit in this contract is that we retain some natural rights, for instance the freedom of assembly, speech, and movement which society may not legitimately require an individual to subrogate to the sovereign will except in extreme circumstances such as where these threaten public safety. These rights are so important to the society, as a whole, that they are enshrined in the Constitution. Like I said, they can only be restrained in extreme circumstances, otherwise they are sacred.
When the government and each of the institutions namely, the Judiciary, the Executive and the Legislature functions as objectively, fairly, efficiently and as independently as they are meant to, and to the overall benefit of each Kenyan, when each member of the society upholds the cardinal principles enshrined in the Constitution and the other rules and regulations that provide law and order, then ideally, we have succeeded in attaining national happiness.
If this is the mechanism through which each Kenyan is bound to the government and its administrative organs, does a stolen election further the goal of national happiness? Do the self preservation measures by the losing winner promote the achievement of national happiness? Do the misguided violent acts of rape, murder and destruction of property by supporters of either divide or by criminal organizations achieve national happiness? This good mind begs to differ. Each of these actions diminishes national happiness.
Kenya’s Social Contract
The social contract is an implied agreement through which all the communities form the nation of Kenya. These communities agree to maintain the Kenyan social order by giving up some natural rights [such as the right to self defense] to one overall institution, the government, which in turn forms supporting political, economic and social institutions such as the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. This means the legitimacy of the government, and of these supporting institutions is derived from the consent of all the communities, they who are governed. In the resulting trade-off, the people get a ‘government’ and the government in turn obtains the ‘sovereign will’ of the people to govern them.
In my beloved Kenya, the sovereign will is defined by the majority, a concept better known as democracy. But with one important caveat, although we, the majority, agree to the terms of the social contract, implicit in this contract is that we retain some natural rights, for instance the freedom of assembly, speech, and movement which society may not legitimately require an individual to subrogate to the sovereign will except in extreme circumstances such as where these threaten public safety. These rights are so important to the society, as a whole, that they are enshrined in the Constitution. Like I said, they can only be restrained in extreme circumstances, otherwise they are sacred.
When the government and each of the institutions namely, the Judiciary, the Executive and the Legislature functions as objectively, fairly, efficiently and as independently as they are meant to, and to the overall benefit of each Kenyan, when each member of the society upholds the cardinal principles enshrined in the Constitution and the other rules and regulations that provide law and order, then ideally, we have succeeded in attaining national happiness.
If this is the mechanism through which each Kenyan is bound to the government and its administrative organs, does a stolen election further the goal of national happiness? Do the self preservation measures by the losing winner promote the achievement of national happiness? Do the misguided violent acts of rape, murder and destruction of property by supporters of either divide or by criminal organizations achieve national happiness? This good mind begs to differ. Each of these actions diminishes national happiness.
No comments:
Post a Comment