Kenyan constitutional referendum, 2005
| Kenyan constitutional referendum, 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Are you for or against the ratification of the proposed new constitution? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Referendum held: 21 November 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Yes
NoA constitutional referendum was held in Kenya on 21 November 2005. Although many government officials, including President Mwai Kibaki, had campaigned for a "yes" vote, the proposed new constitution was rejected by 58% of voters.
Despite the rising number of literate voters in Kenya (74%), ballot papers use symbols as well as text to indicate a preferred candidate. The referendum saw supporters of the new constitution assigned the symbol of a banana, while the opposition were assigned the orange as their means of representation, ultimately leading to the opposition group being named the Orange Democratic Movement.
The referendum divided the ruling National Rainbow Coalition into camps for and against the proposal, as well as spurring violence between Orange and Banana supporters; nine people died during the campaign period spread over several months, but the process itself was peaceful.
During the drafting of the constitution there were disagreements over how much power should be vested in the President, with many believing Kibaki was attempting to garner dictatorial powers. In previous drafts, those who feared a concentration of power in the president added provisions for European-style power-sharing between the President and Prime Minister. However, the final draft of the constitution retained sweeping powers for the Head of State.
The issue of land reform was also prevalent due to the frequency of land disputes between ethnic groups. The draft constitution sought to deal with this and included measures against the ownership of land by foreigners (European immigrants and their descendants own numerous large tracts of land in Kenya). The constitution would have also permitted women to own land for the first time, although only through inheritance, and sought to establish a 'Land Commission' that would manage and oversee the redistribution of land (the formation of the Land Commission was included primarily as a means of preventing the 'gifting' of land by government officials for favours). The land commission would also serve as a human rights watchdog over land disputes and would attempt to give back land to ethnic groups and individuals who have unfairly lost land in the past.
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