Remember me as a reformer, says AG

Attorney-General Amos Wako wants Kenyans to remember him as a reformer, saying he was the originator of the current new Constitution during the 1990s.

Mr Wako, closing a two-day conference of the Law Society of Kenya at Leisure Lodge in Kwale County on Friday, told the more than 500 lawyers that he had drafted the constitution while in Geneva where he had gone to present a report.

“I had gone there as a UN rapporteur on human rights but decided to use its library facility to draft a constitution for our country,” he said, adding that his 1990s document was no different from the current one except for the devolved government.

The AG explained that after presenting the draft to the former President Moi, it received a “warm reception” at the Cabinet level but all the time there was “something” to be amended before going for print.

“Every morning, I would receive a telephone call that something should be changed, and this continued to shrink it after every Cabinet meeting,” he said.

However, in the “heat” of the multiparty clamour, the AG advised the President, who agreed to the repeal of Section 2A.

The AG went ahead to appoint more than 17 task forces on different legal aspects that ended up becoming the basis for the new Constitution.

“Were it not for these task forces, which formed the basis for the different Bills of our new Constitution, we would still be haggling,’’ he said.

He charmed the participants when he appealed for recognition as a former LSK chairman, saying he should be reserved a seat there to ensure the government did not renege on the constitutional implementation.