Dave Opiyo
17 June 2008
Nairobi — Two key Bills expected to kick-start the stalled constitutional review process will be published this week.
Members of the National Dialogue and Reconciliation team have approved the Bills, prepared by the members of the Law Reform Commission and now Justice Minister Martha Karua will gazette them.
Once published, the Bills- the Constitution of Kenya (Review) Bill 2008 and the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill- will then be expected to be tabled before Parliament in two weeks for debate.
Agriculture minister William Ruto has termed this as the first major step aimed at giving the country a new constitution.
Said Mr Ruto: "We are expecting the two Bills to probably be introduced to parliament once the House finishes debate on the budget presented last week by Finance minister Mr Amos Wako."
The Bills will establish how the review process will be funded, amend sections 46, 47, 54 and 60 of the current constitution for the purposes of making a new one and entrench the review process in the current constitution among others.
While addressing the media, the Eldoret North MP refuted claims that the review process will begin again from scratch, including soliciting views from members of the public on the new laws.
He clarified that a team of constitutional experts will be set up to oversee the review process pointing out that their work will be made easier by the use the Bomas, Kilifi drafts and the Naivasha Accord as reference materials.
"We shall definitely not be starting the process from scratch as many think," he said moments after emerging from the talks at Serena Hotel.
Tuesday's meeting was also attended by team members: Martha Karua, James Orengo, Moses Wetangula, Sam Ongeri and Dr Sally Kosgey.
Deputy Prime minister Musalia Mudavadi and Nairobi Metropolitan Development minister Mutula Kilonzo were absent.
According to the roadmap agreed upon by members of the mediation talks, the constitutional experts will be mandated to identify issues in all the available drafts on the constitution, which are contentious and which are not.
Some of the contentious issues include whether Kenya should remain a presidential system or adopt a parliamentary system where the PM will have overall executive authority.
Other issues of disagreement are over devolution of power, affirmative action, land, property and religious courts.
Once the draft has been completed, it will then be presented to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Review with a request that the committee deliberate and achieve consensus on the contentious issues in view of the recommendations by experts.
The document will then be subjected to a referendum paving way for either its adoption or rejection.
The mediation talks are expected to resume Wednesday in the afternoon to seek ways of concluding Agenda Four - the long-term solutions to the political crisis facing the country.
The negotiators also intend to change the venue of the talks. It was however not immediately clear where the new venue will be.
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