Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Delivering new law, and three bouncing babies

By David Ohito

Having triplets is a rare and wondrous occurrence, coming as it does with unique challenges.

It is even harder when the threesome come in the middle of a tight working schedule.

Such were the circumstances that Otiende Amollo faced in March this year, when his wife delivered triplets – at around the same time the Committee of Experts (CoE) on Constitution Review, of which Amollo is a member, delivered a copy of the draft of the Proposed Constitution to Parliament for consideration.

Pressure from work and three extra children, adding to the couple’s two daughters and a son, placed enormous challenges.

"Life has been unbearable without him (Amollo). It is a bit soothing when he is around. But it was difficult adjusting.

Three children are just too many for my two hands," says Amollo’s wife, Linet.

The family has had to hire extra house-helps to cope with the demands of three new babies.

"I have four house-helps for the triplets (which works out to a maid for every infant, and one for the three older children)," Linet says, adding that she is happy the CoE’s work was endorsed by Kenyans at the referendum.

Devolution

"During their (triplets) baptism, CoE members came visiting. I was challenged to name them Devolution, Executive and Katiba and I pondered that before we made an independent decision with my wife," Amollo explains.

Ultimately, the triplets – two girls and a boy – were named Jewel Hawi, Jean Ng’owno and Jayden Amollo. "I have a lorryload of clan members," Amollo chuckled.

Amollo’s says backpedalling by politicians and other stakeholders that marked the exercise, as well as the highs and lows, never dissuaded him from pursuing his work at CoE.

"At the close of the sessions we had gathered over 60,000 pages of Hansard verbatim, and this is what helped us keep track record of what every contributor said. Essentially we guarded against liars.

When politicians changed positions, we referred them to the records," Amollo says.

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