Kenya: Clauses draft law could improve on..

Clauses draft law could improve on

While the Harmonised Draft Constitution contains clauses aimed at curbing corruption, more still needs to be done.

On their own, the clauses cannot prevent State officials from pulling off Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing-type scams where nobody has ever been held liable or the lost billions of shillings recovered.

We should have a clause in the constitution that holds the head of Government, ministers and their accounting officers responsible for failing to protect public property.

Those concerned would then be forced to resign before facing prosecution for breach of trust or dereliction of duty.

The next step would be forfeiture of their personal property and imprisonment, loss of any State benefits and a permanent ban from ever holding public office.

Never again should we have a situation where the country is defrauded and no one gets punished.

{Abdulqadir Nasser, Timau}

There is nothing wrong in having a President and a Prime Minister.

Where we are unfortunate to get an insouciant President, we are more likely to have a hands-on Prime Minister.

There is nothing wrong, per se, in coming up with a draft that is cognizant of the events following the disputed presidential election of 2007.

However, we ought to remember that harmony would be ensured in future if the President and Prime Minister come from the same party. There is nothing wrong with this. The opposition will be kept busy this way.

Let the leading political parties accept this fact and start building strong institutions.

The opposition will also take key committee seats in Parliament.

The drawing up of constituency boundaries takes on even more importance so that no political party can say it is disadvantaged when the issue of devolution of power is considered.

{Githuku Mungai, Nairobi}

The debate on the devolution of power in the draft constitution has the tendency of reducing the whole work to a 'draft confusion'.

It is time politicians moved away from the status quo and started respecting the public as the source of their power.

The draft provides a good avenue for consultative deliberations as well as negotiations, which are key for good governance.

A look at the preamble gives us hope as a people who have the plight of current and future generations at heart.

The idea, therefore, of saying we have been denied our democratic right is a misnomer that could be addressed by learning from other countries.

A good example is South Africa, whose constitution has been hailed worldwide as helping the country achieve economic success and nurture democracy 15 years after blacks came to power.

Kenyans should follow suit and chart their own destiny. We must not allow ourselves to be misled by selfish politicians.

The constitution must prevent certain incidents from recurring. This means that acts like swearing in president at night in the privacy of State House instead of a well-publicised and organised ceremony at Uhuru Park could be challenged as unconstitutional.

{Silas Aluku, Eldoret}

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