Kenya to implement new constitution in 2010

The east African nation of Kenya will likely finalize a new constitution this year as the government has sought to institute a new one since the early 1990s.

On Thursday, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said that a new constitution will be finalized this year, which would ensure equal redistribution of the east African nation’s resources, according to Reuters. However, political factions within the country are strongly opposing the President’s decision as they attempt to resist. In a New Year’s speech, the President of Kenya stated, “Our country is at the threshold of a new constitutional dispensation in the New Year... They (the Committee of Experts) must now carefully and prudently harmonize these views.” After the election crisis in 2007, the country attempted to create a new constitution, therefore, the COE was instituted by international mediators and a new constitution was put forth. The government is seeking the general input of the public. Kenyan Broadcasting Company reports that the President urged citizens to volunteer their views about the constitution and to support the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, which will begin public hearings in the New Year, “I also note that the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission will begin its public hearings this year. I appeal to Kenyans to give their views freely." Kibaki further said, “I am confident that we are now ready to begin works on Kenya's second transport corridor linking us to Southern Sudan and Ethiopia and a new port at Lamu.” Throughout his speech, notes Press TV, the President also discussed the country’s policies towards global climate change by stating that more emphasis shall be placed on energy production including geothermal and wind energy, “We will also begin an ambitious plan of planting trees and get our forest cover to 10 percent.”