KARA APRIL-MAY ISSUE.indd - The Kenya Alliance of Resident ...

CONSTITUTION
It is a
New Dawn
For Kenya
The process of rewriting the
country’s laws has hit the home
stretch, and almost every Kenyan
is happily anxious.
After twenty years of jostling, lobbying,
fi ghting and even dying for a new
constitution for Kenya, the country might
have the new law book in slightly over a
month.
Last month parliament, though by
default rather than design, agreed to pass
a draft of the constitution prepared by the
committee of experts set up by the same
house, unedited.
Though as many as 150 amendments
had been prepared by various members of
the August house hoping to introduce them
to the documents that many a Kenyan on
the street thought was good enough, the
disunity and selfi shness among the MPs, for
once, ensured that none passed.
As a result, the otherwise unfortunate
character traits of the country’s political
class had a positive bearing on Kenya’s
history. We, as a nation, are closer to a new
constitutional dispensation thanks mostly to
the politicians’ vices.
In a few months, the country will be
voting in a referendum to either adopt
or reject the new document. A rejection,
though very unlikely, will mean the nation
goes back to the drawing board in its hope
to ever change the laws that were written for
it in Lancaster, England.
The realization of the gravity and
danger of rejection of the draft constitution
is what motivated the holders of the two top
offi ces in the country to join members of
parliament late last month and ensure that
the document is passed, whichever way.
President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister
Raila Odinga took time off their schedule to
attend parliament to show support for the
document. It was passed un-amended.
But shortly after and as Attorney
General Amos Wako is working on the
editorial part of the constitution, some
dissenting voices have sprung up.
Some Christian leaders have insisted that
they would oppose the draft constitution
because of clauses on the kadhis’ courts
and abortion.
Speaking even as the two principal
political leaders beseeched them to
back the draft, which now awaits fi nal
endorsement at the referendum, the leaders
vowed to campaign against the document.
But the reactions from the Catholic and
Anglican leaders suggested splits in the two
main Christian faiths as junior clergy differed
with their superiors.
Some of those campaigning against the
draft object to Article 26 which empowers
doctors to end a pregnancy if it endangers
the woman’s life or if she needs emergency
treatment.
Some of the Christian leaders are also
opposed to the retention of kadhis’ courts
in the proposed constitution under Article
169 and 170, which limit their authority to
disputes over personal status, marriage,
divorce or inheritance, where all the parties
11.
are Muslims and agree to take the case to a
Kadhi.
At the Anglican Church (ACK) while
Archbishop Eliud Wabukala has reportedly
asked Kenyans to support the draft as the
document is better than the current one,
his junior bishop Thomas Kogo of Eldoret
differs, saying the draft went against the
wishes of Kenyans.
But the Archbishop rightly argues
that the kadhis’ courts should not make
Christians vote against the draft because
the courts were in the current Constitution.
The topmost Anglican cleric in the country
suggests that contentious clauses could be
amended later.
But speaking at a different forum,
Bishop Kogo, who was accompanied by
Provost John Rotech and the Rev Evelyn
Jerotich, said the House of Bishops was yet
to meet and agree on a common position.
Bishop Kogo said of the Archbishop: “He
gave his personal opinion about the draft,
which should not be interpreted as the stand
of all church.”
Elsewhere Bishop Titus Khamala of
Cornerstone Ministries in Kenya has since
praised Parliament for passing the draft
constitution and urged other Christian
religious leaders and the public to vote for
the new set of laws
As we await the referendum, we at
Neighbourhood Kenya, hope that the voters
will be driven by their love for the country
as opposed to sectarian and mostly myopic
interests as they cast their vote.