Kenyans trash Cherargei bid to extend term of President, MPs

Kenyans have overwhelmingly rejected the Constitutional amendments proposed by a Bill sponsored by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei that sought to extend the presidential term limit from five to seven years.

A report tabled before the Senate plenary on Thursday recommended that the House does not pass the Bill since 99 per cent of Kenyans who gave their views rejected it.

Senate’s Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee said it had received 168,801 submissions at the close of the public participation on the Bill. Save for 11 stakeholders who submitted specific comments on the respective clauses, the rest rejected the Bill in its entirety.

“99.99% of the submissions received expressed strong opposition to the Bill, either in its entirety or specifically the clauses relating to the extension of terms of the President, Members of Parliament, governors and Members of County Assemblies,” Committee chairman Hillary Sigei said.

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The Bomet legislator said all the presenters during a public hearing at the KICC on Friday last week opposed the Bill.

“The Committee was also alive to the practice in Parliament where a Bill to amend the Constitution, once published and introduced in either House, may not be amended. This was based on the previously considered rulings issued by the Speakers as well as the decision of the High Court,” said Sigei.

The senator said that even if the Committee was to find merit in some of the amendments proposed in the Bill, such as those seeking to strengthen the mandate of the Senate within the bicameral legislature, the same would befall the same fate as the condemned provisions.

The report said the parts that were not contentious cannot be severed from the rest of the Bill, by way of amendment, and passed separately. Instead, a fresh Bill would need to be introduced containing only the provisions that would garner the requisite support from Members of Parliament to pass at both the Second Reading and Third Reading stages as stipulated in Article 256(1)(d) of the Constitution.

Senators Karungo Thang’wa (Kiambu) and Eddy Oketch (Migori), in their submissions, dismissed the proposal as a threat to democracy, suggesting the terms of service should be reduced.

“I propose adoption of a four-year term for all elected officials on account of enhancing accountability; encouraging political participation; facilitating new leadership imbued with new ideas and perspectives essential for addressing diverse needs of our population meant to prevent power consolidation,” said Thang’wa, citing examples of the US, Ghana and Nigeria.

Oketch argued that the Bill disregards the historical context of the struggles and aspirations of Kenyans for a more democratic and accountable government and is a distraction from critical issues and economic challenges and governance failures.

He proposed a reduction of the MPs’ term limit to four years with 2-year midterm elections as an audit on the members without waiting for five years or going through the near-impossible recall process.

Elected leaders in the country serve for five years before they seek re-election with the President and governors only allowed to go for two consecutive terms while Members of Parliament and Members of the County Assembly can be elected for as many terms as they want.

“The Bill I have sponsored seeks to amend Article 136 of the Constitution to increase the term of office of the President from five to seven years and amend Articles 101, 177 and 180 of the Constitution to extend the terms of governors, senators, Members of National Assembly and Members of County Assembly from five to seven years,” said Cherargei.

The Bill creates the office of the Prime Minister similar to the proposal made in the National Dialogue Committee.