Last week, we commemorated the first anniversary of the terrorist attack at Westgate in Nairobi in which 67 people, including children, were killed.

There were discussion panels on what the day meant, candle lit vigils at the mall and a simple congregation at Karura Forest for a communal mourning. And as we remembered, we relived the tragedy and heroism of that fateful day.

We wondered, just like back then, how one can shoot to death a child and then kneel down to pray. We remembered the civilians and policemen who waded into the gunfire to rescue those trapped inside the mall.

We remembered those who escaped the gunfire and then returned to the mall to help with rescue efforts. We remembered queues to donate blood and the millions of money donated in aid of the injured.

In the aftermath of the attack, different political players, President Uhuru Kenyatta, his deputy William Ruto, and former prime minister Raila Odinga, made impassioned speeches. Raila vowed that the Kenyan spirit would never be broken by terrorism and Ruto spoke of the nobility of the Kenyan people.

But it was the president’s speech that seemed to mark the beginnings of a new political culture. He spoke of the humbling lesson ordinary Kenyans had taught him as they aided one another regardless of cost in terms of money and limb. And then he declared that he was proud to be the president of a country of such fine folk who “deserve our very best.”

Sadly for Kenya, these speeches did not mark a new beginning in the way politics and national business are conducted.

Earlier this year, the Al Shabaab attacked Mpeketoni at the Coast and left tens of people dead. Just as in Westgate, response from the security forces was slow and chaotic.

For an eternity, the government failed to make a statement to clarify the situation. When it finally did, it was to make the shockingly irresponsible claim that the opposition was behind the attacks. This was despite eyewitness accounts pointing to Al Shabaab, and the latter’s claims of responsibility.

The need to score political points overrode facts on the ground and concern over the dangerous implications of such claims.

Then there is the clamour for referendum, for which Raila and the opposition are mobilising their supporters. Not many independent observers doubt that the Jubilee government has performed below constitutional expectations, and that there are issues with the Constitution that need to be looked at afresh. But clearly, as even the Committee of Experts, who wrote the constitution point out, this drive for a referendum is wrong on two levels.

First, it would be too costly for the country if everyone who found fault with the constitution pushed for a referendum. Second, a referendum requires time. If all the constitutional steps are followed, the referendum can only be held in 2016, a year before the next elections.

Therefore, the most reasonable thing would be for the experts , the Committee on the Implementation of the Constitution, civil society, government and the opposition to sit together and agree on which areas of the constitution need resolution through referendum and which can be solved through Acts of Parliament.

If, through such discussions, a referendum is determined to be necessary, then the referendum question(s) can be included in the 2017 elections. As it is, this push for a referendum has more to do with politics than a genuine desire to improve on the constitution.

Then there was the shameful public spat between Governor Isaac Ruto and parliamentary majority leader Aden Duale as children and foreign visitors watched. There is, too, clamour for even higher wages by MPs, county assemblies and senators.

There are appointments to ambassadorial and other positions on the basis of political loyalty. There are governors wielding fimbo ya nyayo (big stick) literally and figuratively, etc. A new start? Hardly.

We might not hear the idiotic chant “Nyayo juu zaidi” these days, but the philosophy of self aggrandisement and megalomania it represented still motivates government and opposition leaders.

Tee Ngugi is a political and social commentator based in Nairobi.