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LSK sends mixed signals over Nyachae team’s future

While LSK President Eric Mutua said he was of the opinion that the commission's term should be extended by a year, he did so at the Society's launch of a Committee for the Protection and Ideal Implementation of the Constitution/FILE

While LSK President Eric Mutua said he was of the opinion that the commission’s term should be extended by a year, he did so at the Society’s launch of a Committee for the Protection and Ideal Implementation of the Constitution/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 16 – The Law Society of Kenya on Monday gave mixed messages on its position where the fate of the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution, whose term expires in December, is concerned.

While LSK President Eric Mutua said he was of the opinion that the commission’s term should be extended by a year, he did so at the Society’s launch of a Committee for the Protection and Ideal Implementation of the Constitution.

A committee whose formation, Convenor Gibson Kamau Kuria said, has been necessitated by the CIC’s failure to successfully execute its mandate to, “ensure that the letter and spirit of the Constitution is respected.”

“Even with their best endeavours, that falls very short of the reconstruction which the Constitution envisaged,” he said.

Speaking to Capital FM News, Mutua later took a position that differed from that of Kuria – who he flanked during the delivery of his statement.

Mutua said, “some of the commissioners have done good work,” and called on the National Assembly to extend not only the commission’s term but that of the commissioners.

He said it would be counter intuitive to bring in a new team as it would take time to bring them up to speed.

“I know some of the commissioners have said they don’t want their terms extended but really it’s just for a year and is the best thing,” he argued.

READ: CIC commissioners don’t want their 5-year term extended

A failure by the National Assembly to extend CIC’s term, Mutua said, would be ill-advised given his opinion that the Office of the Attorney General and Kenya Law Reform would be hard pressed to table before Parliament, on their own, pending legislation for the full effectuation of the Constitution.

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A Constitution under siege, Mutua said.

A siege which he gave as the reason for the formation of the aforementioned committee. “How many times have we seen the Executive blatantly disregard court orders, how many times has the legislature passed amendments aimed at reversing the gains made by our Constitution? We cannot continue to sit idly by,” he said.

Kuria said the formation of the committee has also been necessitated by initiatives to amend sections of the Constitution in a referendum. “Ours are the best legal brains. It would therefore be a disservice not to evaluate proposed amendments.”

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