Law needs to be fixed, Kwa says

 By MALUM NALU

THERE are many grey areas in the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments that need to be changed, Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC) secretary Dr Eric Kwa says.

Kwa, who is spearheading a review into the law, said this would be the third time for it to be reviewed, the first was reviewed in 1976 and the second in 1995.

“This is the third time we’re going to do a holistic review,” he said.

“This Organic Law has been amended almost 27 times.

“In legal terms, when laws are amended so many times, it’s because it was poorly drafted, it was not properly thought out.

“That’s why we want to have wide public consultation so that whatever changes we prepare will not be changed in a couple of years’ time.

“We want to have the law to be substantive so it stays as long as we can maintain, maybe another 20 years, before we can revive it.”

Kwa said the 1995 review led by politician Ben Micah was a rushed job in many instances.

“In 1995 they took about six months to put together the Organic Law,” he said.

“They did visit some provinces but I’m not able to tell you what they did as I was not involved.

“What we hear now and what we hear from other people is that it was done quickly and it was pushed very fast.

“A lot of people were not consulted.

“We want to avoid that kind of situation.

“Hopefully, at the end of the day, it will be a participatory exercise and we have a law that is generally accepted by the people.”

Kwa said over the past two days, he heard concerns about funding and vagueness of the law from provincial administrators.

“There are a lot of grey areas that need to be fixed,” he said.