Where is everybody?

After a week's leave, I came back this morning feeling refreshed, energised and ready to do some work. Unfortunately, when I got into the office, it was completely deserted. Tomorrow there will be a referendum on Kenya's new Constitution, and virtually the whole civil service has been conscripted into going campaigning.

It's a little unexpected, given the very strong separation in the UK between government employees and political electioneering. However, the political leadership in Kenya are very pro-Constitution, and so, by default, are their employees. The two camps have been campaigning for months now, although it's not always clear exactly what exactly it is they're campaigning for. The Constitution is opposed by the Church (because it contains some limited scope for legalised abortion), some groups who want to improve the Draft Constitution, and some politicians who just plain don't like those in favour of it. On the other side resides most of the political leadership, who seem to hope that the referendum will distract people from the myriad of corruption scandals recently.

It's been mostly peaceful, although people are a little tense following a grenade attack at an anti-Constitution rally which killed 6 people. 70,000 policemen have been dispatched to the regions, and the whole process is being continually monitored to avoid the allegations of vote-rigging which surrounded the 2007 elections, leading to mass riots and violence. Fortunately, tomorrow has been designated a public holiday, so we'll be hunkering down at home, seeing how it all plays out.