David Mugonyi
10 March 2004
analysis
Nairobi — The agitation for a new constitution dates as far back the late 1980's and early 1990's. It coincided with the clamour for the re-introduction of a multi-party system of Government.
Ever since, it has been dogged by controversies, broken promises, apparent sabotage and intrigue.
At one point, retired President Moi declared 1995 the year of constitutional making but nothing came of it.
About a decade later, with a new Government and President Mwai Kibaki at the helm, it appears that the debate has entered a new leg of procrastination. The same man who was vocal about reforms while in the Opposition now appears to be backtracking. The question on many lips is: Are Kenyans back on the path of broken promises?
During Kanu's era, serious attempts at rewriting the constitution started with Bomas of Kenya then Safari Park I and II. However, the momentum to get done with the task appears to have been lost.
At the height of its rule, Kanu was accused for frustrating the wind of change. First it promised that the constitution would be reviewed soon after the 1992 elections. The song was then changed to 1997. The party only yielded to pressure after the 1997 mass action and "no reforms, no election" campaign.
But the problems were far from over as there were fresh wrangles over who should sit in the commission that would rewrite the constitution.
In 1998, amendments to the review law were negotiated through the first Bomas meeting and subsequent negotiations at Safari Park.
In 1999, key players in the review process were asked to agree among themselves and pick 25 representatives. Although Kanu was given five slots, it appointed seven people and when Attorney General Amos Wako was vetting the candidates, 21 representatives including 11 Cabinet ministers invaded the venue.
Frustrated, some Opposition leaders proposed that the review talks be abandoned until President Moi leaves office. However, they found a way out and agreed to pursue negotiations through the Ufungamano initiative started by religious leaders.
Bringing together the Catholic church, National Council of Churches of Kenya, Muslims, Methodist, Hindu and Presbyterian Church of East Africa among others, Opposition political parties started parallel reform talks.
This was running in tandem with the Parliamentary Select Committee led by Roads minister Raila Odinga. Mr Raila invited experts to propose amendments to the Review Act, which was initially a product of the Inter-Party Parliamentary Group sitting at Safari Park.
They Ufungamano group appointed their own commissioners - the people's commission - that was chaired by the late Oki Ooko-Ombaka, which went round collecting people's views.
However, they were not well received in Kisumu as rowdy youths disrupted their meeting. At the time, the National Development Party was cooperating with Kanu, which was seen to block the review.
With the appointment of Prof Yash Pal Ghai as the chairman of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, eyes were set on reconciling the two commissions.
Eventually, a merger deal was struck in early 2001, which saw the religious group appointing commissioners to join the 17 appointed by the PSC.
However, it did not come that easy as a vote to allow the two groups to merge came with scuffles.
Soon after, the commission embarked on civic education, collecting views from the public and writing of the draft.
On the run-up to the 2002 General Election, former President Moi prorogued Parliament thereby disbanding the National Constitutional Conference which was ready to start debate on the final draft at the Bomas of Kenya.
In their pre-election campaign, the group which formed the National Rainbow Coalition promised a new constitution immediately it came into power but this has been fulfilled more in the breach than in the observance.
However, come Bomas I (April-May, 2003), Bomas II (August-September, 2003) and now Bomas III (January-March, 2004) with hundreds of millions of shillings spent, nothing seems in sight.
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