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By Mzalendo Contributor - Moreen Majiwa
It's 6 months from the day that the nation voted for the new constitution i.e. August 4th 2010. It seems an apt time to review the overall progress made on the constitution’s implementation and see how we as a country are getting on with the
business of turning the constitutional provisions into a reality.
So far the National Assembly has managed to establish three constitutional commissions
required by the constitution:
However there is a caveat, the Constitutional Implementation Commission and the Revenue Allocation were both established six months later then scheduled. The Judicial Service Commission is yet to be fully constituted seeing as the yet to be appointed Chief Justice is an integral part of the commission.
On Tuesday the cabinet approved the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Bill – the bill establishes the new electoral and boundaries body responsible for elections and for demarcating constituency and ward boundaries. Though it is worth noting that
the country has been without a boundaries commission since the interim independent boundaries commission was disbanded late last year. The Cabinet also approved the Salaries and Remuneration Commission Bill ,both bills will now be forwarded to
parliament for debate.
The deadline for filling in the position of the Chief Justice was the end of February, this year i.e. six months after the date the constitution came into force. The deadline has passed, however the process of recruiting for position is ongoing.
As far as passing bills required to operationalise the constitution, the National Assemblyhas passed 2 out of the out the 16 bills required the Judicial Service Bill and the Vetting of Magistrates Bill, which are now waiting Presidential assent.
Recently the Constitution Implementation Commission head, Charles Nyachae, expressed concern over the fact that parliament is yet to discuss a single Bill for the implementation since the President opened a special session on 22nd March 2011.
Of course implementation of the constitution is no easy task – 6 months on how would score parliament on implementation of the constitution, pass, average or fail?
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