Nairobi — The Committee of Experts did a sterling job in publishing the draft of the proposed new constitution within a very short time frame.

But even as the public debates the proposals for one month before the document is fine-tuned to start the journey towards enactment, there is some unfinished business that might suggest a job half-done.

The committee produced the draft, together with a long list of new laws that must be passed for the new constitution to fully take effect.

A list of new laws or amendments to existing laws is a far cry from the actual drafts. It is understandable that the committee did not have the time, nor the capacity, to simultaneously work the fine print on more than 70 pieces of statutes as they worked on the draft constitution.

It might also be asking too much of the Attorney-General, already suffering an acute shortage of draftsmen in his Chambers, to do much on the legal amendments.

There is, therefore, need to outsource the job. The AG's office, together with the committee, the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution, and the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, should immediately engage a panel of lawyers to do nothing else but craft the new laws.

This is not a process that should await the passage of a new constitution, but one that should be worked on concurrently so that by the time a new constitution is promulgated, an omnibus statute law Bill is ready for consideration by Parliament.

It would be quite pointless to have a new constitution, and then render it redundant because the statue laws to support it are not in place.

Drafting and securing the passage of just one law is difficult enough; and that serves to underline the difficulty of the task ahead.

The time to start working on the new laws is now.