To: jaluo@jaluo.com
By Agwanda Saye
The East Africa Law Society (EALS) has raised a red flag over calls to amend the constitution.
The EALS President James Aggrey Mwamu has urged the public to reject demands to amend sections of the supreme law on flimsy grounds.
“Proposals to reduce counties from 47 to 14 are cheeky and dangerous towards returning the concentration of power and resources to the Presidency,” Mwamu said.
The EALS explained that devolution has nothing to do with the wage bill arguing that counties receive from the national Government a paltry 15 per cent of the national revenue.
“The 15 per cent is equivalent to the Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATIF) which used to be given to municipal councils,” Mr. Mwamu said.
The EALS President said that the wage Bill problem has been caused by rampant corruption and unemployment with a bias to ethnic origins of the people who are in power.
“Kenya has experienced economic wastage that cannot be compared to other nations. Many countries have managed to have two Houses of Parliament without problems,” Mwamu said. Mwamu regretted that the problem in Kenya is the Legislators who feel they can earn anything and have everything.
“They (legislators) flout every rule to achieve their desires without thinking what their actions are going to impact on the country,” Mwamu said
The EALS President said recent calls to scrap Senate and constitutional commissions should be ignored.
“This country has a lot of money lost in mismanagement, stealing and graft. Powerful individuals have colossal amount of money stashed in foreign banks,” Mwamu said.
The EALS regretted that the billions of shilling deposited in foreign accounts were obtained from public coffers.
“The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) must double efforts and ensure the money is brought back to the country,” Mwamu said.
The EALS President challenged Attorney General (AG) Prof. Githu Muigai to explain what he has done with mutual recognition agreements to bring back public money illegally stashed abroad.
“We are now paying Anglo Leasing projects following negligence and the careless manner the matter was handled. We need action and immediately,” Mwamu said.
“Kenyans must be careful about calls to amend the Constitution. The Constitution is not the problem. The scapegoat that is being used at this time is devolution,” Mwamu said.
Ends