RAILA SORRY FOR KALONZO'S HECKLING

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has refuted claims that the heckling of vice president Kalonzo Musyoka during Saturday's YES rally at Uhuru Park in Nairobi was planned.

Raila said the incident was regrettable adding that the YES secretariat would put in place measures to avert such unfortunate incidences in their future rallies.

In an incident that spoiled the mood of the well attended rally, hecklers shouted at the vice president as he was addressing the gathering over his perceived non-committal stand on the proposed draft constitution.

The move threatened to scuttle the YES campaigns for the proposed draft with the VP registering his displeasure as he blamed the ODM party of the fracas and saying PNU might consider holding their own rallies as opposed to the envisaged joint rallies.

Mr Musyoka has also reiterated his stand insisting that he supports the draft constitution in its entirety.

Raila while saying the incident was regrettable maintained that the joint rallies would continue while all YES Rallies will be coordinated by the just constituted YES secretariat.

Elsewhere, retired president Daniel Arap Moi has propelled the NO campaign in parts of Rift Valley warning Kenyans against voting for the draft saying ‘foreign forces' were behind it. This he said was evident in ‘foreign ideas' such as abortion, unionism and a government governed by the civil society and NGOS.

Moi called on Kenyans to reject the proposed draft constitution saying the document had contentious issues that should have been addressed before being put out for the referendum as they were were dividing Kenyans.

The former president cited the clauses on abortion, land and Kadhis' courts which he said should have been corrected before the draft becomes law.

He however urged Kenyans to read the proposed draft constitution for themselves to enable them to make informed decisions during the forthcoming August 4 referendum.

Elsewhere two legislators from Rift Valley are threatening to go court to stop the referendum over what they call circulation of an illegal draft.

The legislators claim the erroneous draft that contained alterations in a section of the chapter on the bill of rights was still being distributed despite assurances from the Attorney General and Committee of Experts that it had been recalled.

The two Konoin MP Julius Kones and his Emgwen counterpart Elijah Lagat said the mere fact that the government printer could come up with two parallel drafts was an indication that the proposed constitution had shortcomings and should be rejected.

There was furore last week after it emerged that copies of the draft bearing some alterations on the section were in circulation with the NO camp saying those were enough grounds for stopping the process as Kenyans might be confused over what draft they would be voting for.

However the Attorney General has since assured Kenyans that the few copies that had those alterations had been recalled.