{"id":13431,"date":"2020-08-27T18:23:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T18:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/kenya\/?p=13431"},"modified":"2020-08-27T18:23:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T18:23:29","slug":"kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system","title":{"rendered":"Kenya\u2019s long search for the \u2018perfect\u2019 system"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Author:\u00a0Kepher Otieno<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>AfricaPress-Kenya:<\/strong> Kenyans are once again caught up in the midst of constitutional reforms debate, with the political class torn between a presidential and parliamentary democracy.<\/p>\n<p>As the country waits for the final Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report on proposed constitutional changes, the political elite is already engaged in an early reforms debate.<\/p>\n<p>While some leaders and citizens feel the current presidential system has had its fair share of challenges and should be changed, another group still prefers the status quo or adopting a hybrid system that fuses both presidential and parliamentary governance systems.<\/p>\n<p>According to Otiende Amollo, the National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee vice chair, the discussions are good and expressly set the stage for a possible rationalisation of new ideas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor 57 years since independence, this is a long period enough to rethink our administrative system and go for what best can work for us. We therefore need a sober debate on the impending BBI reforms,\u201d Amollo says.<\/p>\n<p>He is optimistic that the political overtones to address the sensitive topic such as the proposed change in the structure of the Executive will be amicably resolved by consensus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe expansion of the structure of the Executive will no doubt create a power balance and as well bring stability across the regions,\u201d the Rarieda MP said.<\/p>\n<p>MPs Junet Mohamed (Suna West) and Jared Okello (Nyando) have varied opinions on the current presidential system.\u00a0\u201cKenya is a constitutional democracy. Each general election cycle, leaders must face the people at the ballot. There is no automatic successor to the presidency.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"list-group readmore my-3\">\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\"><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cWe must go to the ballot,\u201d Junet says.\u00a0Those who propose the parliamentary system argue that if adopted, it will strengthen parliamentary democracy.\u00a0The Constitution currently confers vast powers on the president, including the power to appoint top military chief, Chief Justice and judges, the Attorney General, the Cabinet and the Auditor General.<\/p>\n<p>In a TV interview last week, Justin Muturi, the\u00a0National Assembly Speaker, told Kenyans they should begin thinking of how they can tinker again with the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArticle 152 of the Constitution is very clear, we can tinker with it and amend the Executive clause and powers thereto in Parliament without necessarily going for a referendum,\u201d Muturi said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hybrid system<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He proposed a hybrid system of governance, saying it will reduce tension among the top executives and create national harmony.\u00a0\u201cIt will create wide dispersal of power, as opposed to power vested in one institution, which in essence defies the doctrine of separation of powers,\u201d Muturi said.<\/p>\n<p>Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi however says creating many centres of power will not be healthy for Kenyans and they should just make minimal changes.\u00a0Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot says the proposed expansion of the Executive could only end up benefiting top tribes in Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will benefit the Kikuyu, Luos, Kamba, Kalenjins and the Coastal people. We must weigh in on the repercussions,\u201d he says, while his Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen says the idea is a \u201crushed decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The senators are of the opinion that the government should expend more energy in stabilising the economy rather than passing \u201cnew laws often.\u201d\u00a0Murkomen says the drafters of the Constitution have made the Office of the Deputy President very unattractive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author:\u00a0Kepher Otieno AfricaPress-Kenya: Kenyans are once again caught up in the midst of constitutional reforms debate, with the political class torn between a presidential and parliamentary democracy. As the country waits for the final Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report on proposed constitutional changes, the political elite is already engaged in an early reforms debate. While [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":13435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[4551,235,309,2131],"class_list":["post-13431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-2010-constitution","tag-bbi","tag-bbi-report","tag-constitution"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kenya\u2019s long search for the \u2018perfect\u2019 system - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kenyans are once again caught up in the midst of constitutional reforms debate, with the political class torn between a presidential and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kenya\u2019s long search for the \u2018perfect\u2019 system\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kenyans are once again caught up in the midst of constitutional reforms debate, with the political class torn between a presidential and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-27T18:23:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2020\/08\/kenyas_long_searc5f46a23852263.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kenya\u2019s long search for the \u2018perfect\u2019 system\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-27T18:23:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system\"},\"wordCount\":550,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2020\/08\/kenyas_long_searc5f46a23852263.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2010 Constitution\",\"BBI\",\"BBI report\",\"Constitution\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/kenyas-long-search-for-the-perfect-system\",\"name\":\"Kenya\u2019s long search for the \u2018perfect\u2019 system - 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