Group roots for new law
The civil society is calling for an interim constitution to pull the country out of the current political crisis. Once the interim constitution is put in place, it will oversee a complete overhaul of the current constitution, bringing in new institutions of governance, civil society members representing 160 lobby groups said Wednesday in a press conference in Nairobi under the auspices of the National Civil Society Congress (NCSC).
All this, they said, will be done through a transitional government that will oversee the reconstruction of the country and bring in a constitutional order. According to them, the current Constitution cannot resolve the current crisis and, therefore, even the ongoing mediation talks being chaired by Mr Kofi Annan will not take the country in the right direction. “The current Constitution cannot be used to resolve the present political crisis,” Mr Cyprian Nyamwamu, who read the statement on behalf NCSC said.
The group observed that power-sharing will not work between the two protagonists, PNU and ODM, since the same institutions of governance remain. Only after the three arms of Government (the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary) are broken down and divided, the NCSC said, can power-sharing become a reality.
“While some parties want to negotiate the future of Kenya on a flawed foundation of the current Constitution, the National Civil Society Congress wants a new constitution as the basis for negotiating the future,” Mr Nyamwamu said.
The congress, they said, has prepared a progressive draft constitution building on all the drafts that have been produced in the country so far. They include the Bomas draft, and the Wako one, which was rejected by Kenyans in the 2005 national referendum.
“We will be putting our draft to public scrutiny shortly,” Mr Nyamwamu said, adding that they will then push Parliament to allow the formation of a transitional government to oversee the enactment of a new constitution.
They said they have already floated the idea to Mr Annan and his team of eminent persons and expressed hope that they will get support from the group.
After establishing a transitional government, the NCSC said, it will push for establishment of a Truth, Justice and Restitution Commission to address all historical injustices. They vowed to use their network to influence the mediation team to accept their proposal.
But completion of the whole constitutional will depend on political goodwill, adding it must also be subjected to a referendum. “Look at the Inter-Party Parliamentary Group. It took a very short time to be ratified by Parliament since there was political goodwill,” an NCSC member, Dr Bernard Sihanya, said.
The group dismissed those saying the international community should not be involved in resolving the political crisis, noting Kenya was a member of the global community.
Daily Nation
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