Why Ruto and Raila want to amend the supreme law

It was the greatest irony of our times. Some leaders who had opposed the drafting of a constitution 15 years ago, created a special birthday to celebrate the supreme law. But like the biblical king Herod, the leaders used the opportunity to champion the mutilation of the Constitution through amendments.

During the referendum to determine whether a new constitution was to be put in place, President William Ruto, who at the time was a Cabinet Minister, campaigned against it.

This week, however, Dr Ruto’s push to amend the 2010 Constitution gained momentum during the celebration of Katiba Day on Wednesday, with the Head of State and ODM leader Raila Odinga reflecting on the good and deficient aspects of the law.

Among the issues the political bigwigs are pushing are the reduction of the county governments, review of the presidential system of governance to entrench the office of the leader of opposition and the office of the prime minister into the Constitution and the entrenchment of the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).

Other reasons being proposed for the review of the Constitution include reforms in the National Police Service (NPS), the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and electoral reforms.

On Wednesday, the President said there have been other proposals such as reducing the constitutional commissions and reviewing the formula of revenue allocation hence the need to review the Constitution.

“As we celebrate the Constitution, we must celebrate the good, reflect what is deficient and work together to make our country better,” Ruto said.

On his part, Raila reiterated his call to re-examine devolution, especially the 47 devolved units. He proposed a three-tier system which would comprise of county, regional and national government to enhance development.

“I believe the time has come to re-examine the entire model of devolution. For instance, Nigeria, with over 200 million people, has fewer states compared to the number of counties we have. I am not proposing the abolition of any county, but I believe the provincial administration is a colonial relic that should be done away with,” said Raila.

On the NG-CDF, Raila said:

“We are not supposed to be funding projects through NG-CDF when we already have two levels of government: national and county. Parliament should focus on doing what it is constitutionally mandated to do, particularly oversight. If you are both an MP and a contractor, then who is truly carrying out the oversight role?”.

He said his proposals would require a national referendum even as he vowed not to relent on his demands for MPs to surrender the NG-CDF to the county government. 

“Over this, there’s no compromise, we shall face the members of the public. I know this stand is making me very unpopular. I don’t care. I will stand my ground on this particular issue,” Raila noted. 

At the same time, Raila called out the IEBC, National Police Service (NPS) and Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for failing to meet Kenyans’ expectations on service delivery and demanded urgent reforms.

Attorney General Dorcas Odour urged Kenyans and stakeholders to have “a deep, sincere and honest reflection” on the Constitution.

“We need to ask ourselves questions such as whether devolution is working as envisaged by the framers of the Constitution, why is there more wastage of public resources at the county level as observed by the Auditor General in various reports yet there are more accountability mechanism, checks and balances institutions established at the national and at the county level. Why would we allow the electoral cycle after every five years to determine for conditional reforms?  Is it time to audit, review and evaluate the Constitution to see whether it is working or not as intended by the framers?,” she posed.

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula said a time had come to review the 2010 constitution.

“We should have a continuous and candid conversation on the 2010 Constitution to evaluate what is working, what has worked efficiently and what is not working or what are excesses in the Constitution. Such exercise will help our country to continue with our journey and achieve a near perfect constitution,” he said.

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi joined the leaders in calling for the review of the supreme law  even as he recounted how 14 attempts to amend the Constitution in the past have flopped.

 “The 2010 Constitution has had 14 amendment attempts, 10 parliamentary initiatives and four popular initiative routes. We must ask ourselves whether it is impossible to amend the 2010 Constitution or the attempts did not meet thresholds. As we celebrate the Constitution, let us remember that the Constitution is not an end itself,” Mudavadi said.

The proposal to amend the Constitution, however, has been rejected by a section of politicians who argue that the government just needs to fix the economy and address the cost of living.

Kakamega Deputy Governor Ayub Savula urged the government to concentrate on reforming the Social Health Insurance Fund (Shif) and school fees capitation as a referendum was not a priority.

“We can’t amend the constitution at this time.  We have no money to conduct a referendum when the funds for SHA are stolen and when the systems are not working,” Savula said.