Yasiin Mugerwa
13 October 2008
Nairobi — All is not well in Kenya. Even though there seems to be a shared view that the current Constitution has outlived its usefulness, the new proposals to the supreme law have indeed divided Kenyans and their leaders.
Last Monday, the Kenyan Parliament resumed business from a three-month recess with individual MPs pushing for sweeping changes to the Constitution in a bid to disentangle what some legislators have since described as 'historical injustices'.
The Constitutional showdown in Kenya kicked off with a group of MPs led by Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi presenting a notice to table a controversial motion, seeking to limit president's age to 65 years. "Mr Speaker, while the Constitution stipulates that anyone running for president must have attained 35 years, it did not impose an upper limit and this is dangerous for democracy," Mr Linturi said.
"For this case, I intend to bring a motion calling for Constitutional Bill stating that only those aged not more than 65 years to be eligible for election to the high office."
Interestingly, even before the motion could be drafted, some political and religious leaders claim that MPs promoting a motion to limit the age of presidential candidates were targeting Prime Minister Raila Odinga ahead of 2012 race.
Other controversial proposals include the formation of an official opposition within the grand coalition government.
The quest for an official opposition in the 10th Kenyan Parliament came closer to realisation, last Thursday, after the new Bill seeking for its formation was referred to the departmental committee on Constitution and Administration of Justice for scrutiny.
Rebel MPs led by Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba succeeded in their first attempt to officially form an official opposition after the Parliamentary Opposition Bill 2008 passed the first huddle after the Speaker Kenneth Marende cleared the first reading process.
Although Mr Raila is against the new Opposition Bill, a copy seen by Daily Monitor seeks to provide for a caucus comprising at least 30 members of Parliament who are not in the cabinet to constitute an extra ordinary opposition.
MPs from Safina Party, an affiliate party within President Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) and the third main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement of Kenya (ODM-Kenya), said they would unite as opposition.
A host of MPs are now demanding a re-introduction of another new Bill seeking to provide for fresh amendments to the Constitution. MPs led by Mr Ferdinand Waititu (Embakasi, PNU) demanded that President Kibaki's government finalises the process as a matter of urgency.
In a question-answer session last week, the renewed Constitutional reforms pushed by a host of enraged MPs; all pointed at critical areas which need urgent review as part of the wider efforts to restore the status quo. "We cannot wait any longer," Mr Waititu said. "In fact we wanted this Bill yesterday. Mr Speaker, there is a lot at stake and the Minister should bring the Constitution Review Bill to Parliament as a matter of urgency."
The showdown over Constitutional reforms came after Mr Waititu demanded that the Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, Ms Martha Karua, explains steps taken to split Embakasi Constituency, which has a population of about 249,000 people to ensure fair effective representation.
Other MPs led by Kimilili MP Eseli Simiyu (Ford-K) said Kenyans had failed to control ethnicity and required constitutional changes to avert the re-occurrence of the 2007 post-election violence where innocent Kenyans killed in what others described as ethnic cleansing.
But in her response, Ms Karua told Parliament last Wednesday that "The Constitution of Kenya (Amendments) Bill, 2007 was brought before this House last year and it sought among other things to allow the review of boundaries.
This Bill was however defeated and we now have to wait for Constitutional review to provide for this." Pushed to put a time frame within which to re-introduce the Bill to Parliament, Ms Karua said as soon as requested by the Electoral Commission of Kenya, she will respond.
However, she told Parliament that the process was expected to be completed by the end of next year. "The Commission should not be blamed because it was Parliament that rejected the Bill in the first place. Mr Speaker, we are working on the changes and the Bill will soon be re-introduced to the House once we are ready."
Delving into the details for the need to have constitutional changes since Monday a keep scrutiny of the Kenyan Parliament depicts a group of legislators yearning to patch-up ethnicity and inequality grumbling among Kenyan Communities.
"We want the issue of equal representation to be addressed and this is important because the current disparity is unacceptable," Mr Waititu said. "We want the constitutional changes to address these gaps because our people deserve better."
Ahead of the Constitutional changes, the Kenyan government has proposed for the formation of a National Ethnic and Race Relations Commission Bill, 2008, whose basis according to Justice Minister was that Kenyans had failed to tame their tribal leanings and needed a law to correct the anomaly.
But some legislators and Kenyans alike say the coalition government had better deal with the causes of ethnic tensions such as inequitable distribution of jobs and resources.
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