HIJACK REFERENDUM

Lobby groups are alleging a plot by some MPs to amend the law to ensure the draft constitution is not subjected to a referendum.

The claims were made as officials from the National Civil Society Congress announced they would present a petition to MPs not to make any amendments to the draft.

Mr Paddy Onyango, a member of the lobby group claimed MPs were planning to do away with section 47 (a) of the Constitution of Kenya Review Act, 2008, thereby denying Kenyans the right to vote in the referendum.

The section states that the sovereign right to replace the current law with a new one vests collectively in the people of Kenya and shall be exercised through a referendum.

Mr Onyango said the main aim of the MPs, whom he described as “anti-reformers”, was so that Parliament had the last say on the document before it was signed into law by the President.

“We have information that a few anti-reformist MPs had hatched the plot to scrap this,” he told journalists in Nairobi.

The claims were, however, dismissed by former Constitutional of Kenya Review Commission chair Yash Pal Ghai, who said it was bound to fail. The constitutional lawyer said a referendum was enshrined in the Constitution.

Changing this, he added, would require the support of at least 65 per cent of all the members of Parliament. “By even trying to amend this section, these MPs will have betrayed people’s trust,” added Prof Ghai.

Just before the 2005 referendum, there was a similar attempt by MPs to take over the constitutional making process but the High Court ruled that it had no power to replace the constitution with a new one.

Prof Ghai said the Committee of Experts had already made enough concessions on the draft and that making others would further weaken it.

MPs have already lined up 50 clauses which they intend to amend in the draft law before the document moves out of the House on Thursday.

Mr Maurice Odhiambo, the leader of the campaign said MPs had demonstrated inability to have any rational discussions on the draft.