Awwal 21, 1432 H/Feb 24, 2011, SPA -- Kenya's new constitution will reduce investor uncertainty, but it needs to be implemented in good time to be effective and excessive tribalism driven by politicians needs to end, business executives said on Thursday, according to Reuters. East Africa's largest economy endorsed the document in a referendum in August, one of the reforms agreed upon to end the months of inter-tribal violence that erupted following a disputed presidential election at the end of 2007. The business chiefs said political tensions, which tend to reach a crescendo in the months leading to elections, often made them put investment and expansion plans on hold. "We need to have policies, we need to have institutions delivering on those policies and structures, independent of the the election cycle," Dennis Awori, head of Toyota East Africa, told Reuters on the sidelines of an Economist magazine conference on Kenya's reforms. "And that is why this new constitution is so good, because it ... takes all that uncertainty out." Others said given the prevailing will to put the new constitution in place, they were less concerned about the political noise around its implementation as long as it was put in place in good time, and that politicians stopped preaching tribalism. "To be honest, what creates nervousness is when politicians are playing the tribal card, and that I think they must stop doing," Mahmud Janmohamed, managing director of hotel group TPS Eastern Africa told reporters. "The rest ... will do a lot for Kenya." This week President Mwai Kibaki diffused a dispute with Prime Minister Raila Odinga over appointments of top government officials by saying he would start the process afresh. The row had threatened to pull the fragile coalition government apart. Kibaki had been under heavy international and local pressure to rescind his nominations, which had been declared illegal by the High Court and parliament. "We are very happy at what was recently demonstrated by the institutions that have already been formed; the fact that they are willing to take an independent stance, popular or unpopular, and stick with it," Awori said. Speaking at the same conference, the prime minister said that as much as Kenya's coalition government appeared to be bickering, there were many in government ready to stand up for the new charter. -- SPA
