President Uhuru Kenyatta will soon appoint a team of constitutional experts to work with the Building Bridges Initiative taskforce, the Star has learned.
The names will be revealed when the President gazettes the extension of the term of the BBI task force. The task force's term ended on October 31.
On Tuesday, a member of the task force told the Star the panel will not hire experts on their own and that the President would pick seasoned lawyers to work with the committee.
The constitutional experts will review the BBI report, draft bills for presentation to Parliament where necessary and also isolate complex issues that require an overhaul of the Constitution.
The input from constitutional experts is expected to provide the road-map for the implementation of the report that has stirred political debate.
“The President in consultation with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga will name individuals with technical knowledge on constitutional review to address the implementation matrix of the report,” the task force member told the Star on condition of anonymity.
There have been speculations that the BBI team would pick their own experts to help them concretise the proposals into actionable plans.
The President last week announced the extension of the term of the Yusuf Haji-led task force but their new mandate is yet to be gazetted to provide a legal basis for the next phase of its work.
Paul Mwangi, the joint secretary to the team, told the Star that they are yet to start their work because the president is yet to issue a gazette notice establishing their mandate.
“I can't address myself to any issue at the moment until we see the official gazette notice. That is what will give us a legal mandate to respond to any query,” Mwangi said.
He said the gazette notice is expected to give a time frame and outline fresh terms of reference. “The legal instrument will clearly provide for what we are expected to do,” he said.
Uhuru last week said the BBI team did a good job in producing a document that “captured the aspirations of Kenyans” and asked the 14-member task force to steer the next phase of the process.
He said the next stage will largely involve expanding and guiding public participation and structuring recommendations by Kenyans into implementable action plans.
The BBI report was officially launched by the President last month at the Bomas of Kenya.
edited by p. obuya
