Experts: Time not ripe to amend law

Legal and human rights groups are calling on parliamentarians to be cautious with proposals to amend the Constitution.

A section of MPs also urged the Jubilee administration to come up with better ways of controlling corruption and wastage in government instead of rushing to amend the Constitution.

Mr Nzamba Kitonga who chaired Committee of Experts (CoE) that came up with the current Constitution said the proposals by Ainamoi MP Benjamin Langat and his Mwingi Central counterpart Joe Mutambu were premature and might not achieve the intended value.

“We have not finished fully implementing the Constitution. So it is too early. May be after full implementation we can carry out an audit to see what sits well with the country and what does not,” he said.

The two MPs have separately come up with proposals to reduce the size of Parliament by scrapping the Senate and the positions of county women representative and nominated MPs.

Mr Mutambu also wants to reduce the number of counties from 47 to 10 in a bid to slash the wage bill that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has warned is fast escalating towards unmanageable levels.

The proposals by the two MPs also separately seek to scrap the positions of 770 nominated county ward representatives as the government looks for ways to save money for capital projects.

According to Mr Langat, the level of representation is not tenable in the current circumstances and should be eliminated.

“Take for example in the Senate there are 20 nominated members who have no vote on anything yet the taxpayer still is required to sustain them and provide them with all the privileges that an elected parliamentarian enjoys. At the wards, there are 770 nominated county representatives which is half the number of those who are elected. Why do we need all of them?” the Ainamoi MP said.

The proposal by Mr Langat is still with House Speaker Justin Muturi awaiting approval before it is tabled in the National Assembly.

Controversial proposal

Another controversial proposal seems to be for the elimination of the County Women Representatives which the secretary of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights on (KNCHR) Patricia Nyaundi said was not honest.

“Before we go that way we should look at the value of such representation. That proposal (to scrap position of county women representatives) would require an amendment to Article 27 of the Constitution (on equality and freedom from discrimination),” said Ms Nyaundi.

Mr Kitonga said the positions of the nominated members and county women representatives were put in the Constitution to protect certain interests. “People should not just look at the numbers but the philosophy.”

Collectively, the proposals by Mr Langat and Mr Mutambu argue that Kenyans are over-represented making the country’s wage bill untenable.

But Mr Kitonga said the MPs were being dishonest because they are the ones who increased the number of counties and constituencies at the Naivasha Constitutional talks in 2010.

“We wanted to give the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) a free hand to determine the number of constituencies, but they inserted and protected 290 constituencies in the Constitution so that IEBC could only increase but not reduce to meet the population quota,” said Mr Kitonga.

The CoE in their original proposals had recommended 14 counties but “due to mischief by MPs we ended up with 47,” said Ms Nyaundi.

Kabete MP George Muchai said any amendment to the Constitution should await the proposed audit to determine the areas that require enhancements. The Budget and Appropriations Committee of the National Assembly has set aside Sh80 million to carry out an audit of the success or otherwise of the Constitution, a process that should inform Kenyans whether any amendment is necessary.

“We cannot, one year down the line, say that the escalating wage bill is as a result of the Members of Parliament who represent women,” Mr Muchai said.

As the debate rages, a section of MPs have accused the Jubilee government of sponsoring the two proposals to divert attention from the real issues where the government loses billions shillings.