CIC says Kenya AG should go home

The chairman of the team charged with implementation of the Constitution has asked Attorney General Amos Wako to leave office.

The Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) chairman Charles Nyachae accused Mr Wako of being an “impediment” to implementation process by delaying the forwarding of Bills to the President for assent.

On Tuesday, Mr Nyachae wrote a strongly worded letter to Mr Wako, the House Oversight Committee on the Constitution and Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo  arguing that the AG had neglected his role in the implementation process.

Copies of the letter signed by Mr Nyachae were also sent to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

“The AG should have left immediately we enacted a new Constitution. The only value of him staying on for a year was to assist in its implementation but now that he has become an impediment one finds it difficult tell why he should continue in office,” said Mr Nyachae Tuesday.

The Nation could not reach the AG for comment from the US where is he attending to United Nations activities.

However, Mr Kilonzo said he had been requested by Mr Wako to push the Bill and disclosed that though it had been passed, the proposed law had not been sent to the AG’s from Parliament.

“ But Nyachae’s position has  justification. It is the responsibility of the AG to make a follow-up on Bills passed by Parliament for processing. I have no idea a Bill passed a month ago could still by at Parliament.”

The new constitution requires the AG to leave office by the end of August.

President Kibaki appointed  Mr Wako’s replacement but he was given additional time when the court declared the Head of State’s move unconstitutional.

Mr Nyachae cited the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Bill which, he said,  was passed in on May 31, 2010 but has bee lying at the AG’s office. 

The CIC boss said that two Bills which were passed later including the Supreme Court Bill had already been signed into law. He pointed out that the country was anxious about the next election.

Mr Nyachae said the whole country was jittery about the next election but the matter “doesn’t seem to concern the Attorney General”.

"The question that arises is whether the inordinate delay of a month is a deliberate ploy to stall the implementation process or whether it is as a result of lack of appreciation of the constitutional obligation the AG has in the process,” he says in the letter.

“The Attorney General begins to appear like an impediment to the process,” he concluded.

Mr Issack Hassan, the chairman of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) also sounded the alarm over the delay.

“We don’t have the necessary legislation for the 2012 elections. We are already late and we need a law to help us prepare for the elections,” he told a meeting of the women political alliance.

Mr  Kilonzo also blamed the delay on wrangles in the Justice and Legal Affairs committee. ODM withdrew its members from the team after a motion of no-confidence was passed on Mr Ababu Namwamba, the committee chairman.

The minister said that were it in place, the committee was best-suited to monitor the Bill.