Kenya: Constitution in the Spotlight Again, as Elections Near

The fraught process of constitutional review in Kenya marked another chapter this week, with an announcement by President Mwai Kibaki that there would be no partial reform of the constitution ahead of general elections next year. This came after certain parliamentarians proposed changes, dubbed "minimum reforms", saying another whole scale review of the constitution was not feasible before the 2007 poll; the reforms include having the president stripped of his exclusive right to appoint members of the 21-person Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK).