MPs approve team to oversee new law

File | NATION Parliament in a past session. MPs on Tuesday unanimously approved a list of their colleagues to serve on a team that will oversee the implementation of the new Constitution.

By John Ngirachu
Posted Tuesday, October 5 2010 at 22:00
In Summary

Two changes made on list rejected last week to achieve gender balance

Kenyan MPs on Tuesday unanimously approved a list of their colleagues to serve on a team that will oversee the implementation of the new Constitution.

There were two changes to the list rejected last week, with ODM sorting out a likely deadlock over gender representation by replacing a man with a woman.

MPs Eseli Simiyu (Kimilili, Ford-Kenya) and Sophia Abdi (nominated, ODM) have found their way into the team, which meets today to elect a chairman and vice-chairman.

Dr Simiyu took the place of Ms Wavinya Ndeti (Kathiani, CCU) while Ms Abdi replaced Mr Maalim Mohamud (Mandera West, ODM). The committee meets at County Hall on Wednesday.

Mr Danson Mwazo (Voi, ODM) had been replaced after the party’s Parliamentary Group meeting, but kept his place in Tuesday’s list.

Mandera Central MP Mohammed Abdikadir and his Budalang’i counterpart Ababu Namwamba have been proposed to head the 27-member team. The two youthful lawyers headed the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Review and are partly credited with delivering the new Constitution.

Six MPs served in the PSC

There are six more MPs on the team that served in the PSC. It also features others who have been relatively quiet in their time in the House.

MPs put aside the differences that characterised debate last Thursday, which appeared to have been put to rest with consultations and a meeting held on Monday morning.

Leader of Government Business Kalonzo Musyoka urged the MPs to show leadership by approving the amended list tabled via a supplementary paper on the order of business.

“If we are not moving with speed to implement this Constitution, Kenyans can sanction the President to have this House dissolved,” he warned MPs.

Ms Ndeti, who had sought to fight her way back in the list on the basis of gender balance, praised ODM for including Ms Abdi, who brought the number of women to nine.

“This is a lesson for everybody to know that MPs will not be taken lightly. They should also know that we are leaders in our own right as we have also been elected,” Ms Ndeti said.