Thursday July 1 should have been the day that Kenya woke up to a new Constitution that set the country on a path of improved governance and development. But yet again, the government has failed to deliver this document to the people.
President Mwai Kibaki, who came into office at the end of 2002, first promised that a new Constitution would be in hand by the end of his first 100 days in office.
However, political wrangling between the different factions that make up the ruling National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) prompted Kibaki to extend this deadline another three times — with the latest date having been June 30 this year.
In an address on national television on Monday, the president said, ”The June 30 target was set in good faith and is evidence of my personal commitment to a speedy conclusion of the review process. It is now obvious to Kenyans that despite the commendable efforts made, it will not be possible to have the new Constitution by June 30.”
A national constitutional conference, mandated to review Kenya’s Constitution, opened at a venue called Bomas of Kenya near the capital, Nairobi, in April this year. More than 600 delegates from Parliament, religious groups and NGOs met in the subsequent months to draft a new Constitution. This document was issued in September 2003 by the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission.
The draft contains clauses that activists believe will help in the fight against corruption.
”It puts in place institutional checks making government departments more accountable,” said Ababu Namwamba, chief counsel for the Nairobi-based Chambers of Justice International. This NGO monitors the extent of graft in government departments, among other things.
Kenya ranked 123rd in the 2003 Corruption Perceptions Index issued by Transparency International, an anti-corruption NGO headquartered in Berlin. The index surveyed 133 countries according the levels of corruption that business executives, academics and others perceive to exist in these states. The handful of countries that were thought of as more corrupt than Kenya included Angola, Nigeria and Haiti.
However, deep divisions have developed within Narc about a clause in the draft that seeks to shift some of the president’s powers into the hands of a prime minister (a post created by the new Constitution). These clauses were introduced because of perceptions that the extensive powers granted to the presidency under the existing Constitution had, on occasion, been abused.
In March this year members of the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK), led by Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Kiraitu Murungi, stormed out of the constitutional conference to protest against the shifting of powers.
But, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) voted for the clause. Key LDP member Raila Odinga, also the Minister for Roads and Public Works, was reportedly promised the post of prime minister in return for supporting Kibaki in the December 2002 election.
The draft Constitution was later handed over to Parliament for a debate that has not materialised.
In what some viewed as an attempt to maintain presidential powers, Murungi passed two Bills earlier this year giving Parliament the right to amend the draft Constitution. However, both were later withdrawn.
Legislators currently have the right to accept or reject, but not alter, the draft Constitution — although a new Bill is being proposed that would allow some compromise on this matter.
”I appeal to all members of Parliament to enact the proposed amendments into law as soon as possible,” said Kibaki in his televised address. ”It is vital that we get the review process quickly back on track. This will provide the necessary institutional framework for a structured dialogue, to facilitate agreement on the contentious issues.”
The government’s failure to meet its June 30 deadline has not been greeted warmly by critics.
”Kibaki and his government have done little to bring a new Constitution for the country. In fact his statement is hollow because he is not telling Kenyans when to expect a new Constitution. If it’s not 2004, then when?” asks Wahu Kaara, co-convener of Bomas Katiba Watch, a lobby group comprising delegates to the constitutional conference who are pushing for the draft document to be adopted.
”Kibaki … is not offering leadership to this country, but instead has left his ministers to ‘mis-advise’ him and the nation as a whole,” Kaara said in Nairobi. This is a reference to a declaration by Murungi this month in which he stated that he had misled the president into believing that the new Constitution would be ready by June 30.
Bomas Katiba Watch is organising a public rally this Saturday, where LDP stalwarts are expected to have their say. The NAK is also expected to hold a meeting just a stone’s throw away, prompting fears of clashes between those in attendance at the two gatherings. — IPS