WATERLOO, Ontario — Earlier this month, Kenyans went to the polls to vote on a new constitution that will replace the current one when signed into law, marking a turning point in the country's history.
A majority of voters — 66.9 percent "yes" versus 30.1 percent "no" — agree that the constitution in its current form has failed the Kenyan state as evidenced by the constitutional crisis and mayhem that followed the seriously flawed presidential elections of December 2007.
The violent clashes, political turmoil and mayhem that gripped Kenya as a result of egregious voting irregularities worked to dispel Western-backed notions that the country had become a model democracy that should be replicated elsewhere on the continent.