On Thursday, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed that a joint parliamentary committee should be established to mitigate the IEBC issue.
The directive came in after constant demonstrations by the opposition, which also resulted in the death of about 6 Kenyans and massive destruction of property.
However, a Nairobi-based lawyer Maina Wachira has come out to question the president’s approach on the matter.
In a statement circulated in the social media by controversial blogger Robert Alai, Maina points out several reasons why solving the IEBC issue legislatively is inferior compared to dealing with it politically.
“I don't mean to be a wet blanket but my attitude to the latest initiative by President Kenyatta on the IEBC is both guarded and cautious, even as I prepare to engage with my own proposals on the kinds of reform needed to stave off a crisis and even political breakdown in 2017,” says Maina in the statement.
Here are the reasons Maina fronted:
a) The President and his deputy have not had a change of heart concerning IEBC reforms but are just responding to the pressure of Monday’s demonstration.
b) The government is just trying to prevent a national revolt similar to what happened in Tunisia and Egypt by ensuring they first demobilise the crowds. Especially after Cord threatened to demonstrate two days in a week.
c) Jubilee controls Parliament, so even if the Committee is bipartisan and bicameral, eventually the changes that will be made could well be only those changes that Jubilee countenances.
d) We have seen this approach before:
In 1990 President Moi appointed the Kanu Review Committee to stave off pressure for broad-based constitutional reform. This initiative- wholly controlled by Kanu- greatly undermined the pressure for structural reforms and significantly delayed constitutional change. The pressure for change would still be muted till 1995 when the Kenya Human Rights Commission, KHRC (Chaired by Makau Mutua and headed by Maina Kiai) and the Citizens Coalition for Constitutional Reform, 4Cs, (chaired by Willy Mutunga and headed by Erastus Wamugo) led the initiative that resulted in the Draft Model Constitution and re-energized the reform process again. Uhuru and Ruto could be reading from this same script.
Maina finally says that the legislative process should have been the tail-end of the negotiations.