| The top leadership of the
National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) will meet tomorrow to discuss the stalemate in the
constitutional review process, Ford Kenya chairman Musikari Kombo said yesterday. Kombo said the meeting will also try and cool the rising political
temperatures ahead of the June 30 deadline earlier given by President Kibaki for enactment
of the new Constitution but now deemed unachievable.
It is expected, Kombo said, that the meeting will discuss
ways and means of ending the review stalemate and a way to move the process forward.
The Ford-K chairman was speaking in Mumias after officially
opening a free eye medical camp. Matungu MP David Were accompanied him.
Eight MPs last weekend differed with Vice President Moody
Awori over the June 30 deadline for the delivery of a new Constitution.
Mr Kenneth Marende (Emuhaya), Mr Joe Khamisi (Bahari), Rev
Ken Nyagudi (Kisumu Town West), Archbishop Stephen Ondiek (Ugenya) and Mr Raphael Wanjala
(Budalangi) said they were counting the days to the deadline.
The other MPs were Zadock Syongo (Gwasi), Ayiecho Olweny
(Muhoroni) and Jackoyo Midiwo (Gem). They said the government must deliver on its promise
to give Kenyans a Constitution by June 30.
Yesterday, Kombo said leaders of political parties,
including Kanu and Ford People, will be involved in the new initiative to give Kenya a new
Constitution.
He said the Parliamentary Select Committee on
Constitutional Reform will also be reconstituted to give impetus to the efforts to deliver
the Constitution.
Kombo said the Bomas Draft Constitution was not
comprehensive to suit the interest of all Kenyans. "Eighty five per cent of the Bomas
Draft Constitution is good, but 15 per cent is defective," Kombo said.
He said Ford-K party will remain an independent political
entity and will not be dissolved.
And former Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott yesterday
defended President Kibaki against claims that he was to blame for the delay in the
constitutional review process.
Biwott instead challenged Parliament to take the
responsibility of resolving the stalemate and give Kenyans a new Constitution in the
shortest time possible.
He said it was upon parliamentarians to ensure that a new
Constitution that is acceptable to all Kenyans is in place.
"Parliament is the supreme organ that can unblock the
constitutional review stalemate and it is high time parliamentarians take the challenge,
" Biwott said.
The Keiyo South MP said Kenyans had played their part well
in giving their views to the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission and called for the
review process to be speeded up.
He said it was unfair for Parliament to abdicate it
responsibility of delivering a new Constitution to Kenyans.
Biwott’s comments come in the wake of a controversial
rally scheduled for July 3 to discuss the constitutional review stalemate at
Nairobi’s Uhuru Park.
The rally, which is organised by the Katiba Watch, a lobby
made up of former delegates.
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