constitution of kenya review commission ckrc ... - ConstitutionNet

A Bill should be introduced in Parliament to enjoin Aids education in schools, and create awareness starting at locational levels.
Government should also set aside a special fund for all Aids patients, for medical treatment.
On international relations, I would propose that immigration laws should be streamlined to cater for increasing rate of illegal
immigrants. Also on border security, I think it should be tightened to avoid illegal arms, from being smuggled into the country. I
stop there and I thank you for that opportunity.
Com. Kabira: Thank you, please register your name, thank you very much, Jackson Ndirangu. Waigwa Wachira?
Waigwa Wachira: Good afternoon. I would start by saying, that I feel that the current Constitution, though we are geared to
have a way of changing it, adequate, in many ways, but it is the people who have actually failed. It is the people who have
abused their positions of power, from the top to the bottom. Because if I look at the Constitution, I have read it from when I
was a student and up to day there are all nice words, all nice phrases protecting the common. It is just that these words are
forgotten the moment you go, to let’s say an office, or you go to the police station. You go to an administrative office, anything
that you want done, cannot be done, because you have not bribed somebody, or because there is too much bureaucracy, you
are told come tomorrow, come the other day. So I feel that what we ought to dwell on is mainly how to pick the office bearers
in this country. Rather than having just very nice paperwork of a Constitution, but the people who are handling these matters,
are nowhere, or cannot do what they are supposed to. I would like to suggest a few things regarding what I would like to be
put in the Constitution, as this goes on.
I would like to talk of the councils. When things go wrong let’s say in the Kikuyu County Council, one goes and talks to the
local Councillor, and the local Councillor says no, the town clerk has refused to sign this, or has disapproved this or the other.
Well I elected my Councillor to go and do this job. I employed the Councillor and he goes says that he cannot be able to
handle the job. It simply means that the whole process of electing him was useless, because it is the town clerk who finally
makes the decision. So what I feel is that the Councillors should have the power, and not the appointees of the local
government ministry.
The other thing, I would like to talk about the Parliamentarians. I feel that we should not allow these business of having an MP
elected by a simple majority. It is very unfortunate, that in a constituency of let’s say a hundred thousand people, we might have
ten candidates of all, and the winning candidates who have gone with 25% of the votes or 30%, we should insist on having a an
absolute majority or at least 50%, for all Parliamentarians and also civic Councillors. So it is my opinion that we should actually
feel represented, by making that whoever is in parliment or whoever is in the council, elected by us, has been elected by at least
50%.
The other thing is on the Judiciary, I feel that we are in a mess, as far as the Judiciary is concerned because the laws are there.
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