Sunday, May 30, 2010

JUDICIARY AN OBSTACLE

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has attacked the judiciary as an obstacle to reform after a court ruled it would be discriminatory to entrench Muslim courts in Kenya's constitution.

"I think it is a most unfortunate ruling and mischievous at that," Odinga said in an interview with Reuters, referring to a ruling by a three judge bench on Monday declaring Kadhis' courts illegal.

"This basically has confirmed what we've said ... that our courts are not independent. Our courts themselves are impediments to reform," Odinga said.

"The intentions of this judgment are clear. It is not the Kadhis' courts that they are aiming at. They (the judges) just want to shoot down the entire constitution because it provides for their resignation and vetting at the end of it, and that is what they don't want," he said.

Odinga said he did not believe the court's ruling would harm the campaign in favour of the proposed new constitution, which is backed by the grand coalition, including Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki.

"I think it is actually going to harden the resolve of the people to get a new constitution. I see a boomerang effect," Odinga said.

Odinga said he would accept the result of the referendum, no matter what is was. "We are ready for any outcome. We are campaigning for a 'yes', but if we lose democratically, then of course we have no choice. We'll accept the outcome," he said.

Odinga was speaking after launching an initiative to boost engineering in Africa at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London.

The PM on Friday met his British counterpart Mr. David Cameron at Downing Street.

This was Mr. Cameron's first meeting with an African leader since taking office.

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