ODM will 'fight' for Namwamba

Lands minister James Orengo. The Orange Democratic Movement has said it should be allowed to decide party representatives in the parliamentary Justice and Legal Affairs Committee May 10, 2011. FILE

By ABIUD OCHIENG’   
Posted  Tuesday, May 10 2011 at 10:57

The Orange Democratic Movement has said it should be allowed to decide party representatives in the parliamentary Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.

Lands minister James Orengo said the move will help unlock the deadlock facing the Committee.

Already, Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba has been ousted as chairman but a replacement is yet to be named.

However, the Ugenya MP said that Mr Namwamba is their representative and the party had a right to maintain him since the Constitution allows such party representation.

“We will fight for Mr Namwamba because he is our party representative in that committee. Any committee member who doesn’t recognise party involvement is actually undermining the Constitution. But should there be difficulty with that, ODM should be given its fair share to appoint a replacement because that is the only political solution available,” said Mr Orengo.

Mr Orengo said that Committee is facing challenges because anti reformists were working towards frustrating its activities.

He said that while some MPs were campaigning for reforms in the 1990s, some who are still in Parliament today were working towards preventing multi-party democracy, implementation of a new Constitution and promotion of democracy in the country.

“The Constitution we passed is a good document but if we do not have implementers who respect the Constitution, its goodness will never be seen by the public,” said Mr Orengo.

Mr Orengo and Education assistant minister Ayiecho Olweny said most of those who campaigned against the adoption of the new Constitution were the same people who had ganged up to frustrate Mr Namwamba and the activities of the Justice Committee.

“There are those who want to see the reform process collapse and so we decided to pull out of the committee so that Kenyans can see who is frustrating reforms in this country,” said Prof Olweny.

The ministers said that with the new Constitution, it was not easy to appoint the Chief Justice, Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions and Controller of Budget without adequate consultations. They said they were optimistic that consultations will also resolve the stalemate on the reform committee