Involve public in review: Experts

The public should be allowed to actively take part in constitution-making to achieve practical and relevant laws for the country, constitutional experts said on Thursday.

Speaking at a regional constitutional conference in Nairobi, delegates from various countries were unanimous that unless the people were consulted, the writing of new laws would never pass the referendum test.

But they still warned that engaging the public could make the process “go round and round” with no tangible benefits.

A former secretary to the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, Dr Patrick Lumumba, said that inasmuch as constitutions are written in “legal language”, those crafting them have to “reconnect with the public aspirations for new laws.”

Dr Lumumba was responding to concerns raised by lawyer Gibson Kamau Kuria, who had termed the review Bill recently tabled in Parliament as “faulty.”
Dr Kuria had said that the Bill did not have provisions to reconcile the people’s aspirations with those of the experts.

But the former CKRC secretary said that the Bill had certain clauses that “could be used creatively” to reconnect with the people.

His remarks echoed those of Rwandan Justice minister Tharcisse Karugarama, who on Monday said that a constitution should aim at offering solutions based on the prevailing local circumstances, not international expectations.

The review Bill proposes a committee of experts to fine-tune the various constitution drafts that have been prepared since the process started.

Similarly, a section of the delegates castigated remarks by Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Kibaki that the constitution was a “gift” to the people of Kenya.

Ms Njeri Kabeberi, from the Centre for Multiparty Democracy, said that terming a new constitutional dispensation as a “gift” seemed to negate people’s struggles for good governance.

On his part, Mr Karugarama said the ruling elite “would have no excuse” if it failed to give Kenyans a new constitution.

They called for the delinking of constitution-makings from politics, but warned against leaving the process to legal experts.

Drawing examples from the Bomas deliberations, Prof Gitu Muigai said the process failed because it was hijacked by political interests and because a few of people’s wishes were left out.

“The 2005 referendum was never a constitutional question, it was a political question,” the legal scholar said.

Prof Muigai called for a reasonable mix of public aspirations, international laws and the local social, economic and political circumstances in the process of law reforms.