‘It’s now or never’ for new constitution
By Saturday Standard Team
Prof Yash Pal Ghai, the respected legal mind that chaired the Bomas review talks and saw his product torn to pieces by politicians before eventual defeat in the 2005 referendum, says it is now or never.
Ghai’s counsel is a one liner – the time to give Kenyans a new constitution is now or never.
Reason? “Every constitution making process almost always comes at a critical moment for a country and this is it for Kenya,” said the man who has overseen such reviews in countries scarred by conflict such as Nepal, Afghanistan, East Timor, Uganda and Eritrea.
In times of peace, Ghai said, people do not see the need for a new constitution. The search for one is seen as an enormous and expensive exercise that is not a priority. People ask whether there is really a good reason to pursue it.
“When the crisis has been so deep the international community virtually moves in and takes over the country, that is a deep enough problem to convince a nation to revise its constitution. That is what happened in Cambodia, East Timor, Afghanistan and Nepal,” the legal scholar said.
Ghai spoke as Electoral Commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu, who presided over a flawed election that nearly took Kenya to civil war, turned up at the Kriegler Commission.
He pointed an accusing finger at politicians before the judicial team probing the conduct of the disputed elections last year. Kivuitu discouraged rushed overhaul of the electoral body.
ECK is the target of reforms to shield it against manipulation but Kivuitu said not a word on the pressures and interferences from the Party of National Unity and ODM-Kenya, which he talked of in December, when he conceded he was neither in control nor privy to some of the things that were taking place as the nation’s impatience soared. Nonetheless he accused politicians of dishonesty and bribery.
Some questions
Kivuitu’s push for gradual reforms of ECK, and Ghai’s subtle advice of piecemeal reforms could, just as the Law Society of Kenya proposed last week, be the easiest way to achieve the dream that has eluded Kenya for two decades.
But this triggers the questions:
*Is Kenya ready for a new constitutional referendum as it still nurses the wounds of the disputed elections?
*Is President Kibaki, whose ‘imperial’ powers are target of review ready to be in a weakened office in the middle of his last term?
*Is Prime Minister Raila Odinga prepared for the prospect a new constitution could mean death of the National Reconciliation Accord?
*What will be Raila’s fate if the accord collapses with his office and that of his two deputies Musalia Mudavadi and Uhuru Kenyatta?
*What would it mean for Kibaki’s and Raila’s legacies if they fail to unite the country the way they did ahead of the signing of the peace accord on February 28?
*What guarantees are there, that once again the review as agreed in the Annan Deal, won’t be hamstrung, not by its wholeness, but disagreements on one-liners, say, on religion, devolution, President’s and PM’s powers and even size of Cabinet?
*If all fails would the Kivuitu team, discredited as it is, but cushioned by security of tenure, supervise 2012 General Election?
*If it is bound to flop, is Kenya ready to push another several billions, in the thick of a world economic crisis, into the sinkhole?
*Would the nation hold if the new bid flops, or will Kenya’s so-called ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ blocs, as loosely defined in the loyalty to Banana and Orange, as well as PNU and ODM, grind at each other on the fault-lines?
*If the political leadership fails to smoothen the way and the dream dies, how will Kenyans who, for two decades, have yearned for a new constitution take it?
What will it mean for the health of the nation? Will it spur ethnic hostilities that always seem to lie beneath the veneer of one nation, one people?
The questions could be hard, but harder will be the exercise of transacting the exercise without losing either of Kenya’s two main political blocs.
Last week Justice minister Martha Karua tabled the two Bills spelling out the road map for the review. The Annan deal anticipated a new constitution within one year, but the process is behind schedule, and anxiety is rising.
But it could come to zero if it is marred in divisiveness and suspicions that undermined the formation of the Grand Coalition Cabinet.
Either way, it is a race against time, and as Prof Ghai says, this is the best season to plant if we want a bountiful harvest. But booby-traps seem strewn across the farms, yet the farmer smells famine ahead.
Meanwhile, one look at Ghai and Kivuitu is a reminder of the nation’s cry for a new constitution, no matter the hurdles that could be erected by political exigencies and rivalries and ethnic suspicions.
Courtesy of:http://www.eastandard.net
1 user commented in " ‘It’s now or never’ for new majimbo constitution "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackKivuitu is a digrace to the nation ,though he wants to appear innocent. This the cause of all
problems kenyans suffered during and after the general elections.He comprised his position of
leadership when discharging his duty as the chairman of ECK.This man is now trying to blame
ECK as abody for the failure.
Why did not ask the parliament to amend this provisions which makes the body weak before all these elections? It was not the first election to be overseen by Kivuitu. He should not cover himself from all these messes. He should resign now or be sacked by parliament.
In December,2007,Kivuitu accused other leaders ,including ODM-Kenya ,as the ones who pressured him to announced a rigged election.And now,when receiving reports from krielger Commission,Kivuitu is not talking the same language of having been pressurised by PANU
and ODM leaders.This man is a turncoat who can easily put kenya into a political turmoil any
time.He talks many languages without clear memory.
He tried to justified his misdeed by many excuses like :” I was sick when the exercise was going on”,I was forced to announce the disputed result because of pressure from executive and odm-kenya party leader.Now he is ready to come out clean by blaming just the laws govern ECK which was passed by parliament. This man is not fit to be aleader at anytime.
We know kibaki used him to rig the election after being threatened with non reappontment when his retirement time reached before the election.Kivuitu accepted to help kibaki rigged
the eletion in the exchange of his reappointment. Kivuitu decided to prepare for the death of many kenyans because of money factor.
This is a dangerous man who should not be allowed to a leader at anytime.This is another JUDA THE ISCAROIT who does not care about human life .Kivuitu always talk of being a christian and born again and yet he is not a christian at all.
Leave A Reply