KENYA

Reports on Ethnic Relations  /  Rapports sur les relations éthniques

The following section is consisted of part, full or summaries of articles from diverses sources (newspapers, newsletters, etc...).
La section suivante est constituée d'exraits, de la totalité ou de résumés d'articles provenant d'origines diverses (journaux,bulletins, etc..).

11 / 18 / 2003

THE EAST AFRICAN STANDARD (Kenya)

"The long, rough road to a new constitution" (Alberto Leny)

Another crisis emerged yesterday as the Constitution review process continued to trudge along a rocky path in a torturous journey that has now reached its penultimate stage.

The review of the Constitution has been dogged with many issues since the formation of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (CKRC) over two years ago and yesterday’s incident at Bomas of Kenya was just another reflection of this difficult exercise.

The clamour for a new constitution gathered moment after the 1997 General Election, inspired by Opposition politicians, who argued that the Kanu government and the Presidency wielded "too much power".

This group of politicians felt that the current Constitution vested excessive powers in the Executive at the expense of the other arms of government and to the detriment of ordinary Kenyans. Hence was born the phrase a "people-driven constitution" that came to be exemplified by the so-called "Wanjiku".

Differences immediately arose over who was to participate in this important exercise and how it was to be achieved.

On one side was the Kanu Government and on the other side was the Opposition activists and the faiths-led group called the Ufungamano Initiative. And there was the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on the reform of the Constitution.

The CKRC, under the chairmanship of Prof Yash Pal Ghai, was to be the instrument of change. Wanjiku, of course, was torn in between, being tossed from one side to the other, like in a game of table tennis.

The quandary continues today, but it would be useful to go down memory lane to the birth of the CKRC and the events that have led to the current predicament.

The merger between Ufungamano and the statutory CKRC began in November 2000 and negotiations were completed in March 2001.

On April 7, 2001, former President Moi dismissed the Ufungamano Initiative’s 12 appointees to the expanded 27-member CKRC, saying that they were not representative of the Kenyan people.

The then chairman of the parliamentary committee, Mr Raila Odinga, defended Moi, saying he was not out to scuttle the review process, the accusation that is now being levelled at the top leadership in Narc. Ufungamano eventually merged with the CKRC and one of its members, the late Dr Oki Ooko-Ombaka, was appointed as Ghai’s deputy.

Hopes that a new constitution would be in place before the 2002 General Election were dashed on April 5, 2002 when a task force headed by commissioner Githu Muigai found that the commission would not be able to complete its task before the polls.

CKRC had by this time gone round the country collecting views from the public on the constitution they wanted. A Draft Constitution was being compiled and was to be discussed by over 600 delegates from all corners of the country at the National Constitutional Conference.

Politics then took centre stage as the General Election approached. The review process was suspended when Moi dissolved Parliament a day before the National Constitutional Conference opened at Bomas of Kenya. The 2002 General Election was held on December 27 and Narc swept to power, shunting Kanu aside after 40 years at the helm.

In March 2003, Ufungamano warned of an attempt to hijack the review process during a meeting with Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Murungi and the newly-elected chairman of the PSC, Mr Paul Muite.

The faiths-leg group’s chairman Rev Mutava Musyimi said they had cautioned Murungi and Muite against removing the process from being people-driven. "We told them that it must be the delegates themselves to drive the process and the commission to help them in writing".

Earlier Muite had said that although the committee was committed to bringing the process to conclusion soon, it would not accept an "unrealistic deadline" to complete its work. Since then Bomas I and Bomas II have come and gone with plenty of work achieved in the review process.

Bomas III was supposed to culminate in the adoption of the Draft Constitution and the issue of whether to hold a referendum or not.

However in September, Parliament yet again extended the CKRC mandate this time to June 2004. Bomas III had been expected to resume yesterday before this extension which set the new date for January 12.

With the blocking of Ghai and some delegates by anti-riot police at Bomas yesterday, it can only be said that many stormy days lie ahead for the Constitution review process.

11 / 12 / 2003

THE EAST AFRICAN STANDARD (Kenya)

"MPs should fight sleaze from front"

The campaign against corruption makes practical sense only if the tempo is sustained, and the awareness translates into high level reprimands, resignations, dismissals and prosecutions.

Caution should come with deterrence, naming and shaming should come with blacklisting and rejection, and corruption as perversion of procedure must be stigmatised.

But ours, as President Kibaki told the conference organised by the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (Apnac) that ended yesterday in Nairobi, has been a culture that rewards deceit.

A culture where the mendacious are likely to curry favour with the public than the honest. A culture where elective political leadership has largely been a preserve of the endowed, with a high propensity to depravity.

President Kibaki could not have been more candid when he opened the conference on Monday:

"Let us work for the day when, as MPs, we can say, we have been elected because of the vision we impart rather than the cash we dish out, for our ability to convince the mind rather than to satisfy the stomach."

The thinking, at least as it emerged from the meeting, is that Parliament should be the cynosure of the fight against corruption.

This is especially so in our country where Parliament has tended to overlook the vice even as it consumed the moral fibre of our society, impoverishing the people while creating political millionaires.

Deceit was pervasive under Kanu, and it still is under the Narc administration. This is because high level reprimands were rare, and still hard to come by.

Corruption was rewarded with political patronage. The base were pampered instead of being named, shamed and prosecuted.

But if the culture of impunity was perfected by 40 years of Kanuism, it would be dishonest to say it is passÈ.

Narc may have taken the fight against corruption a notch higher, but it is yet to reach sacking and prosecution stages.

If Parliament must lead the war against corruption, then MPs must be exemplary and peer review must be part of institutional accountability.

If our MPs can do this through Apnac, by all means let them do it constantly.