“We brought about a new Constitutional regime but placed it in the hands of the old regime to implement it”, stated Otiende Amollo, a former member of the Committee of Experts on Tuesday 30th September.
Mr Otiende was addressing the first Internews Free and Fair Media training workshop themed “The Burden of Bills”. He tried to explain why 15 bills had to be passed last week in 4 days to meet the Constitutional deadline of August 27th. He cited disharmony between key actors especially between Parliament and the Constitution Implementation Commission (CIC) as one of the causes of the delay in the passage of bills.
Questioned by 9 trainee journalists from print and radio mainstream media, the current Advocate of the High Court of Kenya gave his point of view on the progress on the Constitution implementation. “We have achieved a lot on enforcement of rights and on taxation; the new Constitution has also silenced the Grand Coalition battles” he said.
He however regretted that the appointment process was behind schedule and that the legislation process had been done in a hurry without public participation.
He expressed further concerns on the delay in the establishment of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), emphasizing that the lack of election body as well as the delay in the demarcation of new constituencies were potential “time bombs”.
