20101010
Nation

Nairobi — Now that MPs have agreed to work together to drive the rest of the implementation process of the new Constitution, it would be good if they also agreed to lower the noise level so that they can get something done.

Nairobi — Now that MPs have agreed to work together to drive the rest of the implementation process of the new Constitution, it would be good if they also agreed to lower the noise level so that they can get something done.

It is understandable, though disagreeable, for political parties in the Grand Coalition to quarrel over the chairmanship of the Implementation Committee.

Our politics is a high-stakes game, but the rest of us cannot really comprehend what the brouhaha was all about in the first place.

These are merely a set of laws whose implementation will be overseen by a committee of Parliament.

It is not clear how the chairman of this committee can influence the outcome of the implementation since he is not allowed by law to change even an iota of what is in the books.

Could it be that this jostling was prompted by nothing else but a sense of one-upmanship and ethnic considerations?

Anyway, now that the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee is up and running, it will be necessary for parliamentarians to forget their rivalries and get to work with a will.

After all, as has been pointed out, the work ahead is heavier than all the work done so far, and the trials will be many.

Let MPs forget their party affiliations; let them even forget their loyalty to their party chiefs and pledge their loyalty to Kenyans. They did it during the referendum campaigns, and so unity cannot be such a wrench in their lifestyles.

The reason our legislators must take the long view is simple: The new law is here and this incessant wrangling can only derail its implementation.