DRAFT READY

Kenya parliamentary team has thoroughly scrutinised the draft constitution to ensure that Attorney General Amos Wako has not made any changes before he publishes it.

After nearly five hours of sifting through the document clause by clause Tuesday, members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitution (PSC) expressed satisfaction that no changes had been made to the document and gave the AG the green-light to publish it.

Speaking to the Nation after his team went through the document with the AG, PSC chairman Abdikadir Mohammed confirmed that no fundamental changes had been made to the document.

“We have gone through it and there are no changes, save for editorial ones like commas,” Mr Mohammed said.

Voter education

Consequently, the committee gave Mr Wako the go-ahead to publish the document Thursday after which Kenyans will be subjected to thirty days of voter education to enable them understand its contents before casting their vote during the referendum expected within ninety days.

This means that the document, which Kenyans will be asked to vote for or against during the referendum is the one that was passed by Parliament without any amendments.

Churches and some politicians have been pushing for changes to be made to contentious clauses, mainly touching on kadhis' courts and the right to life, before it goes to the referendum.

The Church objects to the section of Article 26 which empowers doctors to end a pregnancy if it endangers the woman's life or she needs emergency treatment.

Christian leaders are also opposed to the retention of kadhis' courts in the proposed Constitution under Article 169 and 170, which limit their authority to disputes over personal status, marriage, divorce or inheritance, where all the parties are Muslims and agree to take the case to a Kadhi.