Kenya signs political reform into law

KENYA’S president signed a new constitution into law yesterday that institutes a US-style system of checks and balances and has been hailed as the most significant political event since Kenya’s independence nearly a half century ago.

Kenya’s new constitution is part of a reform package that President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga committed to after signing a power-sharing deal in February 2008. That deal ended violence that killed more than 1,000 people following Kenya’s disputed December 2007 presidential vote.

“This is the most important day in the history of our nation since independence,” said the 78-year-old Kibaki.

Odinga said the constitution was a major step in bridging Kenya’s political and ethnic divisions.

Kibaki’s signature formally marks the end of a decades-long struggle to cut down the massive powers of the presidency.

The government and parliament now must implement the ambitious document, a process expected to take up to five years. The document requires, among other things, the formation of a Supreme Court and a Senate. It also demands that the country’s judiciary be vetted to rid it of corrupt or incompetent judges and that parliament pass 49 new laws.