Cord faults Jubilee over failure to meet deadline

Cord leader Raila Odinga has accused the Jubilee administration of failing to ensure the deadline for implementing the Constitution is met.

In a statement issued to mark five years since the supreme law was adopted, Mr Odinga argues that the government has been slow in spearheading the changes and should be blamed for not meeting the deadline.

“We mark this day with the failure of the Jubilee Government to enact the remaining legislation within the prescribed period.

“The clouds of cynicism that formed from Jubilee’s resistance to our new constitutional dispensation have rained today and soaked our commemorative parade,” the Cord leader said.

Thursday marks five years since Kenya adopted a new Constitution on August 27, 2010. The laws provided for, among other things, creating a devolved government, changing the provincial administration system, creating commissions and setting requirements for one to qualify as a state officer.

So far, Kenya has established 47 counties, enacted laws on dual citizenship and the police service and created a Cabinet that is not composed of members of Parliament.

Although the Cord leader expressed optimism about the changes, he argued that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government was not keen on ensuring good governance.

He said the delay in implementing Chapter Six on leadership and integrity is a sign the government is keen “to re-establish an imperial presidency”.

“We are yet to effect the prescribed guiding principles of leadership including objectivity and impartiality in decision making, and ensuring that decisions are not influenced by nepotism, favouritism and other improper motives or corrupt practices.”

SERVE EVERYONE

However, President Kenyatta has defended his record. On Sunday, he penned a commentary in the Sunday Nation saying his government had been freed by devolution to serve everyone.

“Under my government, we are executing development projects throughout the country regardless of perceived political alignments.

“Whether we are talking about supporting health facilities, rolling out Huduma Centres, building roads, connecting schools and households to electricity or deploying the young men and women of the National Youth Service to work with communities, we make no distinction between Kenyans on any basis,” the President wrote.

Mr Odinga was prime minister in the Kibaki government when the Constitution was passed. While he bears some of the blame for the country's failure to enact some of the laws, such as one on the gender principle, he says the new government should have passed the required laws.

The laws should have been enacted by Thursday, five years since the Constitution was adopted.

They include laws on community land, minimum and maximum acreage, national culture, agreement on national resources and a formula for ensuring the one-third gender rule in government offices.

On Tuesday, the National Assembly extended the deadline for passing the laws by 12 months. Lawmakers from both the Cord and Jubilee coalitions endorsed the extension.

But Mr Odinga charged that the government was not keen to pass laws that are constitutional. He cited the Community Land Bill.

“Jubilee is taking us back to the old regime of colonial statutes that brought about chaos and injustices to the land sector.

“Both the Community Land Bill, 2015 and the amendments to the Land Act contravene the Constitution and invalidate the National Land Policy,” he said.