New draft most ambitious in E. Africa’s independence history

Kenya, like its counterparts in the East African Community, has a history of trying to change its Independence constitution with little success.

Still, Kenya remains the first country in the region to undertake a constitutional overhaul during peace time.

Uganda and Rwanda change their constitutions after long periods of civil strife.

The journey to the new constitution can be traced to 1982 when the then president Daniel arap Moi made Kenya a de jure one-party state under Kanu.

But it was not until the late 1990s that the real struggle to change the Kenyan constitution kicked off with the repeal of Section 2 (A) in 1991 that allowed the return of multi-party democracy.

Still, the political playing field remained slanted in favour of Kanu, leading to the 1997 “No Reforms, No Elections ” agitation that saw Kanu agreeing to minimum legal and statutory reforms under the Inter-Party Parliamentary (Group), that allowed the opposition to nominate members to parliament.

The first major attempt to change the constitution started in 2003 with the convening of the Bomas Constitutional Conference, which produced a draft in March 2004.

The draft was subsequently rejected in a referendum in 2005.

However, the 2007 post-election violence hastened the need for reform and led to the establishment of the Committee of Experts in 2008 that delivered its draft on Tuesday.

Tanzania has had the least dramatic history in reforming its independence constitution.

The first milestone was in 1964 when mainland Tanganyika and Zanzibar united to form the federated United Republic of Tanzania.

In 1992, it introduced multiparty democracy while in 2007, a programme was initiated to strengthen the multiparty system.

After decades of war in Uganda, the NRM government took over in 1986 and imposed a no-party system until 2005 when a referendum paved the way for multiparty elections in February 2006 while parliament voted in September 2005 to lift the term limits to the presidency.

Rwanda made constitutional adjustments following the 1994 genocide. In 1995, the Transitional National Assembly adopted a new constitution which included elements of the constitution of June 18, 1991 as well as provisions of the 1993 Arusha peace accord and the November 1994 multiparty protocol of understanding.

Burundi, on the other hand is still grappling with the after effects of decades of war and is trying to cope with multiparty and democratic practices.