CONSTITUTION OF KENYA REVIEW COMMISSION (CKRC) Verbatim Report of DISSEMINATION OF REPORT AND DRAFT BILL, GATUNDU CONSTITUENCY, HELD AT GATUNDU EDUCATIONAL HALL ON 8TH OCTOBER 2002 DISSEMINATION OF REPORT AND DRAFT BILL, GATUNDU CONSTITUENCY, HELD AT GATUNDU EDUCATIONAL HALL, ON 8TH OCTOBER 2002 Present 1. Prof. Wanjiku Kabira - Commissioner Secretariat Staff in Attendance 2. George Wachira - Assistant Programme Officer 3. Josephine Ndungu - Verbatim Recorder 4. Stephen Wanyoike - District Coordinator. The meeting started at 10.35 am with a word of prayer from Esther Wambui.. Stephen Wanyoike: We want to start the meeting, can I suggest you come nearer so that at least those who come late can sit at the back. Unfortunately, we don’t have power here so we haven’t got the public address system. Good morning? First of all I want to thank you for coming and I think it is right we start off and if other people are coming at least they will be able to catch up. Before we start lets do what is traditional in this area, we can start with a word of prayer so that we ask God to bless us. Can someone volunteer to just start us off with a word of prayer, a lady or a man, young or 2 whoever. Prayer: Esther Wambui: We want to thank you for gathering us here, we are grateful Lord for the country that you have given us that we may leave peacefully, we may enjoy all the gifts of nature that you have given us. Dear Lord, we bring this country into your hands that whatever you have prepared for us, we will be grateful to receive especially our new Constitution. We are waiting for it because we need to be liberated by you, we bring everything and we commit everything into your hands, so that we know you are going to give what we deserve. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Stephen Wanyoike: Before I start I want to first of all welcome you to this centre. We do apologise on behalf of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission because we are aware the notice of this meeting was quite short but there was a purpose, because as you may have heard or you read in the newspapers. The new draft that has come up is going to be debated and discussed at the National Constitutional Conference and Madam Commissioner here will be talking about that later. Because there is a little time allocated to the Constitution Review it was necessary that they come back to launch and give you the views that were given by wananchi all over the country and specifically in this particular constituency. I do remember when Commissioner Bishop Kariuki, Commissioner Lethome and Com. Abida Ali Aroni, I think when they came there they promised that unlike many other Commissions that do work and they make reports and these reports are kept somewhere they will make a point of coming back and show you what they have already done, at least in a draft form before they can finalize on them. This is exactly what they are now doing, they have come here today. Yesterday they were in Juja Constituency in Thika District, tomorrow they will go to Gatundu North and the day after that, I think on Friday they will go to Gatanga in order to complete Thika District. Equally, they are going all over the country in all the constituencies, out of the 210 constituencies they will go to every single constituency. They will want to see the wananchi before they take the document to Nairobi for final discussions before the other process takes place. She will be discussing more about that. So really today is actually fulfilling a promise that was given and we are very thankful that she has found time to come. You will be given or at least I think you have already been given a copy of the draft as you came in, there will be other reports, and there will be the Constituency Report of Juja Constituency which documents we shall be give, and they will be in our office in Thika at the documentation centre. There will be also other relevant reports, the short report that you have heard. They will also be available so that wananchi can have an opportunity to get involved in this process as much as possible. But for now the most important thing is for the Commissioner here to go through the draft, and raise issues that were brought up by your people and others and you have an opportunity to comment, discuss them and give a view. I may want to mention as early as this that if you do not have enough time to read the whole document and you have other things you want to raise, either supplementary, comments or you think that they should be added, there is still time. First of all before we close for the day we can pick up whatever views you want to give in writing. Alternatively, they can be brought to our offices at the documentation centre in Thika District, we are located in Murang’a 3 District Cooperative Union Building, Second Floor. Within one month or within the next three weeks we can receive anything written and we will forward it to Nairobi. The other thing is that, if you do happen to be in Nairobi, the Commission’s headquaters is at KENCOM House, 2nd Floor, and anytime I think even these days they are working almost 24 hours a day, you can actually bring anything and they will take them in. In short what we are saying is, this is not the final document, it is a draft, there is a lot of discussions that are going to take place, and there is still time for wananchi to comment and bring anything to be taken in. It is now time for me to introduce you to those people who have come from Nairobi accompanying Madam Commissioner. On my left here is Josephine Ndung’u who will be assisting the Commissioner in the deliberations here today, and then far right there is George Wachira who is the Programme Officer with the Commission in Nairobi, and he will also be assisting the Commissioner. Now it is my pleasure to introduce you to Commissioner Professor Wanjiku Kabira who of course, up to now she has not been able to visit this particular centre but she has been in one of our constituencies, Thika District Constituency. I think she was in Ruiru if I remember, because you remember during that time they divided themselves into different groups. It is her first time to be here, Wanjiku Kabira is very well known within the education sphere, she is a Professor at the University of Nairobi, and I am sure she has taught many people within this constituency. She is also a Commissioner at the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, and she has been very active in helping us come up with the new draft for the new Constitution. Therefore, it is our pleasure to have her today and raise any questions or any views you think you can bring up and she will be able to answer. We are also lucky that you can use any language particularly the Kikuyu language, English or Kiswahili, you are free to do it but for now probably we will communicate in whichever language you think is correct and right for you. Thank you very much and we welcome Professor Kabira to this sitting. My name is Jess Wanyoike, I am the Coordinator in Thika district and I am based in Thika District. Madam Commissioner this is Gatundu South and as we wait for more people to come these are the people who presented their views last time in this particular centre and in another one in Kiganjo. They gave many views and those are the views that at least have formed part of what we are analyzing and part of what you will be telling us, what has come up and we welcome them to this sitting. Thank you very much. Com. Wanjiku Kabira: Thank you. Stephen Wanyoike: The members of the 3C’s. I think two things, we have members of 3’Cs, what we call the Constituency Constitutional Committees, the members we have been working with all along. I think I have two, I have seen Mrs. Njoroge, stand up so that they see you. We have Anthony Gathieka who is outside at the registry, then we have three more people I want to introduce to you, I wanted to introduce them later on but if you want I can do it right now. Professor Kabira will be talking about the National Constitutional Conference in Nairobi, and that will be one of the major organs of concluding this 4 review process and part of the participants will consist of three delegates that are drawn from each district. For that matter in Thika District we have three delegates who will to the National Constitutional Conference to debate and discuss that particular document that will be presented there by the Commission and they will do their necessary debating and the necessary amendments before it goes to the other process through the Parliament. What we did is that we neither selected nor nominated the three delegates. What the rules were is that the district was to elect three members, and we had an Electoral College that was formed and this was made up of the Thika County Council Councillors.