Halt Katiba assembly, Ukawa urges Kikwete

Ukawa co-chairman Ibrahim Lipumba addresses the media in Dar es Salaam yesterday.  With him are fellow principals James Mbatia (centre) and Freeman Mbowe.  The group called for the Constituent Assembly, which is currently sitting in Dodoma, to be suspended indefinitely.  PHOTO | EDWIN MJWAHUZI 

Dar es Salaam. The Constituent Assembly (CA) grouping calling itself Coalition of the Defenders of People’s Constitution (Ukawa in its Kiswahili acronym), now wants the President to suspend the assembly. Ukawa’s argument is that the CA has lost political legitimacy.  The grouping is also threatening to take drastic action, including staging countrywide protest marches and public rallies to demand that the CA be suspended indefinitely until pending key issues are resolved.

  Ukawa’s move comes at the time when the Constitution making process is marred by uncertainty, after Constituent Assembly Members (MCAs) from three opposition parties – Chadema, CUF, NCCR-Mageuzi—declined to return for the ongoing sitting.

Speaking at a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the leaders of the three parties expressed dismay over CA, adding that the insistence by the ruling party MCAs to sit in the Assembly was a sign that there was a leadership vacuum in Tanzania.

“Any keen person will realise that the way the CA is being bulldozed by CA chair Samuel Sitta is a result of poor leadership in the party currently in power,’’ charged the NCCR Mageuzi chair.

The party boss who also co-chairs Ukawa further asked the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) to do a special audit on the money that has so far been spent on the CA which, he claimed, was being fleeced by unscrupulous officials.

On Monday, a section of the press reported that the Office of the Clerk of the CA spent Sh142.56 million to hire public address systems from Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC). 

“This is sheer misuse of public funds and that is why we are now demanding that the Head of State calls off the Assembly and save the taxpayers’ money,’’ said CUF chair Ibrahim Lipumba. The CA is expected to last 90 days during which Sh20 billion will be spent on it.

According to the Chadema secretary general, Dr Willibrod Slaa, if the Head of State won’t call off the Assembly, demonstrations would be their next course of action and that the Opposition would no longer engage themselves in negotiations with CCM.

Despite the call by Ukawa to the President to put the brakes on the CA, questions linger as to who has the powers to call off the Assembly should the MCAs fail to debate and adopt the Second Draft Constitution.

Section 28 (1) of the Constitution Review Act states: “After the enactment of the proposed constitution, consequential and transition provisions, the CA shall stand dissolved and powers to enact provisions for the proposed constitution, consequential and transition shall abate.”

Section 28 (2) further states: “…dissolution of, and abatement of powers of the CA shall not be construed as derogating powers of the president to reconstitute the CA for enactment of provisions amending the proposed constitution.”

This means, the law is silent on who has the discretion to call off the Assembly even as pressure mounts on Mr Kikwete. Apart from Ukawa, various groups, legal experts and independent political commentators have separately advised that the CA be called off because it lacks legitimacy by continuing with the sitting in the absence of a whole 200 legitimate MCAs, out of 629. However, lawyers who spoke to The Citizenyesterday said the President might find it tricky to dissolve the CA without breaking the law. “If it was the ordinary Parliament, this would have been easy, but I have doubts if the President will bow to pressure to call off the CA in such an environment,’’ said the Dean of School of Law of the University of Dar es Salaam, Prof Bonaventure Rutinwa. At the news conference, Prof Lipumba expressed his disappointment over the ongoing CA saying it did not make sense to debate the Draft Katiba while the majority of the MCAs from Zanzibar were absent.