AG given go-ahead to publish draft

Attorney General Amos Wako was on Tuesday given the go-ahead to publish the draft constitution after scrutiny by a parliamentary committee confirmed that no major changes had been made to the document endorsed by MPs.


After nearly five hours of sifting through the document clause by clause, members of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) expressed satisfaction that no changes had been made to the document.

Speaking to the Nation after his team went through the document with the AG, PSC chairman Mohammed Abdikadir confirmed that no fundamental changes had been made to the document.

“We have gone through it and there are no changes, save for editorial ones like commas,” said Mr Abdikadir.

PSC’s move could be traced to a 1992 experience when it took Lands minister James Orengo, then a multi-party crusader, to rush to court to reverse a move by Mr Wako that would have affected the date of a general election.

After the AG publishes the proposed constitution, Kenyans will be subjected to 30 days of voter education to enable them understand its contents before casting their vote during the referendum expected within 90 days.

Churches and some politicians have been pushing for changes to be made to contentious clauses, mainly touching on kadhi courts and the right to life, before the draft goes to the referendum.

End pregnancy

The Church objects to the section of Article 26 which empowers doctors to end a pregnancy if it endangers the woman’s life or she needs emergency treatment.

Christian leaders are also opposed to the retention of kadhi courts in the new constitution under Article 169 and 170, which limit their authority to disputes over personal status, marriage, divorce or inheritance, where all the parties are Muslims and agree to take the case to a Kadhi.

Memoranda circulated at the session from the Kenya Episcopal Conference and the Catholics for Peace and Justice calling for the alteration of clause 26 to remove any references to abortion and to recognise that life begins at conception were overlooked.

“They were the same ones that were circulated at Naivasha. We did not consider them because it was too late to alter the document,” said one PSC member who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak on the committee’s behalf.

“We’ve cleared him to go ahead and publish the proposed law on Thursday,” said Mr Abdikadir.

He said the editorial changes mainly focused on cross-referencing, where the provisions of an article refer to another article.

“The draft has changed so many times that some of the clauses were referring to non-existent chapters; so it was upon the Attorney General and his team of drafters to comb through it and correct the anomalies,” the PSC chairman said.