Kenya: Draft Law Setback as Politicians Squabble

How long will this take?

The major political parties dealt a blow to the draft constitution on Thursday, taking antagonistic positions in the review process. MPs rejected for a second time, an attempt to hold a meeting to seek unity in Naivasha, meaning that the squabbling could spill over to the floor of the House on Tuesday afternoon.

There were fears that the review had become a theatre for political wars and power struggles within the ruling coalition. "There is a lot of drama surrounding this (review) process that has nothing to do with the new constitution. I think we should not allow these differences to cloud the objective of getting a new constitution," said Parliamentary Select Committee on the constitution chairman, Mr Mohamed Abdikadir.
He asked MPs not to politicise the review when debate on the draft begins next week. Orange Democratic Party and Party of National Unity have taken opposing sides on whether there should be amendments to the draft presented to Parliament by the Committee of Experts.
PNU favours the revision of the draft done by the PSC while ODM supports the output of the CoE as the final document. On Thursday, PNU members of Parliament met and expressed fears that some of their ODM counterparts were hatching plans to derail the review.

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