LUKE ODHIAMBO, NAirobi | Sunday 8.45pm
KENYAN President Daniel arap Moi on Sunday lashed out at South Africa and the Commonwealth for interfering in Kenya’s controversial constitutional reform process, which has stalled.
Addressing the 21st anniversary of his rule, Moi also reiterated that it was parliament’s prerogative alone to review the constitution and not that of a non-partisan, broad cross-section of society, as provided for under a bill Moi himself passed into law last year.
Moi’s about-face on the issue followed protracted wrangling about seats on the commission called for by the new law.
“I have seen a tendency, even among members of the Commonwealth, particularly when talking about Kenya’s constitution, to come to lecture us on the issue. Do they think we are fools ?” said Moi, whose final five-year mandate expires in 2002.
“Let them send their advice to the government, if they have any advice, and not to private citizens in this country, as I have never gone to any country, or asked my high commissioners or ambassadors to interfere with any other country,” Moi said.
“Even the South African constitution is being sent around here to sell among Kenyans, but we don’t need their constitution,” Moi said in reference to a three-day Law Society of Kenya (LSK) workshop on the constitution which ended here on Saturday with an endorsement of mass action to push Moi to act.
The thrust of pro-reform arguments is that the constitution, through numerous amendments, leaves too much power in the hands of the head of state, giving him, for example, the right to appoint a range of officials, including judges and top civil servants.
Opening the law workshop on Friday, South African High Commissioner to Kenya Griffith Memela called on Kenya to borrow from the South African experience based on the transition from the draconian apartheid system to a democratic and non-racial state, to resolve its current stalemate.
“The type of constitution in South Africa is pushing people into a fallout. It is what they asked for,” Moi said.
Moi said Kenya, of all countries, does not interfere in internal affairs of any country, although it could easily have criticised countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania or those in southern Africa. — AFP