Why the people share in the blame for the failure of the ‘social contract’

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws – Plato.

English philosopher Thomas Hobbes described society without laws and rules as living in a ‘state of nature’ where only the strong and powerful can survive.

To get out of such state, he observed that society needs to enter into a ‘social contract’ where people will have collective understanding and agreement that it is in the interest of everyone to not only formulate laws and rules but also to respect, protect and enforce these laws.

Under this arrangement, he opined, people will reap the benefits of social order, security, education and other important needs for human survival and prosperity.

In this regard, Kenyans, in their own wisdom, have agreed to be governed under a constitutional democracy where the people have huge powers and responsibilities on the way the nation is run by the institutions of governance. Under this arrangements, the laws don’t provide for the people to completely surrender all their affairs to these institutions.

The Constitution of Kenya, 2010, from the onset recognises that sovereign powers belong to ‘the People’ and that all decisions made by government should be done in the interest of the people and with reference to them through public involvement and participation. Further, the power enjoyed by all arms of government are derived from the people.

However, even under such elaborate provisions and arrangement, their still exist gabs and inefficiency in the realisations of the promise of an orderly, secure, free, fair, just, equitable and prosperous society.

These shortcomings are often blamed on the want of leadership, poor governance among others. Little do we interrogate the roles of the citizenry and lapses on their part that occasions these failures.

Demand accountability

To address this, it is imperative to ask whether the people clearly understand their roles, responsibilities and powers under the Social Contract. It is only in this premise that the sovereign can actively participate in fulfilling its part of the Contract.

The Constitution has placed stronger obligation on the people in realization of the objects and ends of ensuring a prosperous society.

For instance, the people have duty to respect, preserve and protect constitutions and the laws through obedience to dictates of the laws. The laws anticipate active citizens’ participation in governance. The tools availed to the people include: Filing petitions, picketing, demonstration, participating in the decision-making fora among others. The citizens are also entitled to demand for accountability and transparency from all institutions with the aid of their rights to access to information among others.

Further, the cardinal right is that of electing persons who are to make and implement the laws and policies in the country. This right is cloaked under the heavy duty to consider the personal integrity and competence of persons entrusted with public offices.

This obligation is rarely diligently fulfilled by the people. It is hypocritical for the sovereign to expect good governance when they donated their powers to the incompetent, corrupt and unethical persons.

This unfortunate abuse of sovereign powers will precipitate a vicious cycle of bad governance characterised by weak laws, weak institutions, poor service delivery, inequality and poverty, bribery in elections and poor leadership.

The people cannot run away from the very blame of abdicating their roles and responsibilities and later blame institutions they helped establish.

Prosperous nation

The laws and institutions do not operate in a vacuum. They mirror the society that created them. A society that normalises bribery, deceit, chicanery, shortcuts and other immoral, illegal and unethical acts will end up having thieves, charlatans, inept, and immoral persons running its affairs.

Therefore, it will be running a fool’s errands to use laws to correct a bad society. True to the words of Plato, ‘Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws’. It is thus the bare minimum requirement for society to advocate for having ‘good people’ in its majority for it to realise its potentials.

That is why it is incumbent upon everyone in society to interrogate the individual and collective conscience to commit to live in an ethical, honest and upright live. In fulfillment of their part of the social contracts, the citizen should be guided by values and morals of good standing and respect of the laws in decision-making.

Otherwise, the promise of a secure, fair, just and prosperous nation shall remain elusive and we shall be living in the primitive state of nature characterised by failures of institutions of governance, perpetual inequalities, injustice, corruption and undignified lives.

Mr Abdi is a lawyer and a governance analyst. [email protected]; @inasaney