MPs on Tuesday amended the Constitution to create the posts of Prime Minister and two deputies. The MPs voted to pass the Constitution of Kenya Amendment Bill without amending it and also passed the National Reconciliation Accord that was signed by President Mwai Kibaki and Hon. Raila Odinga on February 28.

The constitutional amendment was moved by Justice Minister and Constitutional Affairs minister Hon. Martha Karua and Seconded by Ugenya MP James Orengo. It was Karua, while tabling the Bills, who set the tone for the rest of the speakers when she said that while lawyers had expressed doubt on the fidelity to legal jurisprudence in having two Bills introduced to Parliament, the argument that this would open a floodgate of similar Bills was unfounded.

She said the two Bills were well designed and were being implemented to meet special circumstances in the country. The pieces of legislation, she observed, would not be used as precedence because they were crafted for an exigency. She also justified the need to pass the two Bills quoting form Tanzanian Paschal Mihio, who said; “The law is an ass and an idiot. We’ve got to flog it to make it work for us.”

Karua electrified the House with her Knowledge and surefootedness of matters legal when she that if laws were found inadequate to serve to serve the needs of man, they could be amended because “the law made to serve man not the other way round.She described the new Bills as being not of “very good jurisprudence but they are here for absolute political necessity".

Saying that the accord was signed there was a national semblance of normalcy in the country, which had greatly improved, save for a few people who are still IDPs, she posed: Does any one here have a right to deny Kenyans normalcy? Karua said the move to legislate the two Bills was necessary “for our own lives. It is time to make some hard choices for our country.” And she had no soft words for foreign states, which she said issued “threats” to Kenya before the accord was signed saying they should have demonstrated friendship. “A friend is a friend not a slave master.”

She also paid glowing tribute to President Kibaki for what she termed as foresight in appointing only half the Cabinet, which left many leaders wondering why he did this.