Foreign experts hired to help draft new Bills

By ALEX NDEGWA

Four foreign experts hired to assist in drafting legislations to implement the Constitution will begin work next month, Attorney General Amos Wako has said.

The AG said the experts would assist the State Law Office and the Kenya Law Reform Commission in drafting laws in finance, devolution, land, the electoral system and representation of the people.

The experts from the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Uganda, will also provide expertise to Government ministries, departments and agencies involved in preparation of Bills.

Identified by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the consultants who report to work on February 1 are Michael Wright, Ian Gray, Werner Krull and Margaret Ndawula. Speaking during a meeting with members of the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), Wako said more experts would be engaged and urged the CIC to consider hiring similar independent consultants to review Bills submitted to them .

"I know you will play your part in ensuring that extraneous considerations, political expediency, undue influence in furtherance of personal or ethnic interests or shortcuts has no role in the implementation of the Constitution," Wako told the commissioners.

The commission chaired by Charles Nyachae, tasked with overseeing the development of legislation and administrative procedures to implement the supreme law, had met Wako to be briefed on progress in drafting legislations.

The commission has moved to the Delta House offices in Nairobi where the defunct Committee of Experts drafted the Constitution.

The AG asked the commissioners to accord priority to the Judicial Service Bill and the Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Bill.

because they underpin urgent reforms in the Judiciary.

Similar urgency should be extended to four Bills on police reforms, he added.

Nyachae expressed confidence the Government would allocate necessary funds to enable them discharge their mandate. Wako assured that funds would not cripple the CIC because the Government understood its important role.