Immediate past Attorney General Musa Mwenye says the just ended Constitution amendment National Dialogue Forum was a waste of time and a meaningless process, warning that Constitutions that are created with the purpose of gaining political points don’t stand the test of time.
In a statement, Mwenye who is also State Counsel said a contrived dialogue process that estranges very important players could not result in anything meaningful, adding that the wasted time could have been better used on fixing the falling economy.
“Spending resources on forums that are fixated on increasing the number of politicians to be employed as Ministers is not the best use of our time as a nation, particularly when our preoccupation must be to fix our economy. The economy is now a non partisan issue and our patriotic duty, must be to fix it. Politics must give way to humanity,” Mwenye said.
“Currently, I think our energies must be directed at fixing the economy. I’m not sure that a contrived dialogue process that estranges very important players can result in anything meaningful. You cannot have meaningful dialogue with yourself and those who like the sound of your voice. By its nature dialogue requires giving space to those who may be annoying you to speak and to speak candidly.”
He predicted that the just ended process would end up like the past failed attempt by those in power trying to gain political points.
“We have had constitutional making processes in the past. We have learnt that if the process is not well thought out and inclusive, the outcome of that process is doomed to fail. The job of any Government in Constitution making is facilitative. To enable all stakeholders to have a meaningful say and input on the content of the constitution,” said Mwenye.
“If the aim is to score political points, then I’m afraid you will not have a people driven constitution. It was clear to me when the the 2016 Constitution was passed that it would not stand the test of time. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that it was rushed and meant to score political points.”