and JOSEPH LUPELE

Fear of President Moi is at the centre of the constitutional stalemate, a Cabinet minister says.

Mr Musalia Mudavadi said on Sunday that persistent resistance to change on the part of the Opposition, the Law Society of Kenya and mainstream religious groups is based on a perception that President Moi wants to serve another term.

The Constitution bars the President from running for another term.

Mr Mudavadi said the introduction of the debate on the detention-without-trial clause by the LSK, the appointment of commissioners by the Ufungamano Initiative group, calls for mass action and the boycott of the parliamentary select committee's report were aimed at diverting Kenyans' attention from changing the Constitution.

He said the fear had resulted in a narrow desperation focusing on the presidential succession issue alone at the expense of more important issues like the economy, health and a variety of social problems.

"They have been fighting President Moi for decades but have failed. These people have now adopted deliberate tactics to ensure that the Constitution is not changed by the current Parliament because they imagine the President will not be serving his final term,'' Mr Mudavadi said.

Mr Mudavadi, who was a member of the Raila Odinga-chaired parliamentary committee, said those against its report were only determined to remove President Moi from power despite his assurances that he would retire at the end of the current term in office.

He was speaking during a harambee fund-raising in aid of the Busali East Primary School in his Sabatia Constituency.

Nyanza deputy Provincial Commissioner Aggrey Mudinyu, who represented his boss, Mr Peter Raburu, helped to raise Sh811,213.

Mr Mudavadi gave Sh240,000.

Mr Mudavadi, the Minister for Information, Transport and Communication said : " The principles of the nation should not be driven by a vengeful desire to remove a single individual, but to work out strategies towards what is good and progressive for this country in the constitution for now and in future".

He warned that vengeful politics were destructive to a country which had taken so much time, efforts, sorrow, blood and resources to build to its current state adding that those bent on this trend of politics should think twice about it.