Confusion reigns over Ruto plan to anchor Vision 2060 in law

Constitutional experts and political pundits have poked holes in President William Ruto’s intention to integrate his Beyond Vision 2030 plan into law and the constitution, claiming it was a plot to introduce a referendum in bid to fulfill his political ambitions.

The President said it was prudent to anchor Kenya's post-2030 long-term development blueprint in law to ensure future administrations remain committed to the national agenda and to operationalise the development provisions of the Constitution.

He said the limited involvement of citizens in the development of Vision 2030 affected how some Kenyans related to the plan.

“The reason you find in some cases many people do not understand, do not relate to Vision 2030 was because there was no public participation to the extent that we know public participation has provided for in the constitution at the moment and therefore we have an opportunity this time around different from the opportunity that was in 2008 to formulate a long-term plan, one that is done by the people, not by government, not by bureaucrats, by the people themselves,” he said.

Ruto said the current process provides an opportunity for Kenyans to participate directly in determining the country’s long-term priorities.

He also pledged government support for the consultations and said resources would be made available to facilitate the process.

“From a government standpoint, we are able to make all resources available for this process to be truly people-centred, citizen-driven, and future-looking. We are ready for that,” he added.

He called on students, religious groups, businesses, political parties and civil society organizations to take part in the process.

“Article 3 of the constitution obligates each and every Kenyan individually to protect and defend the constitution. We are discussing in this conversation how we are going to actualize some of our constitutional rights,” he said

Akin to other constitutional amendment trials such as the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) that sought to amend the 2010 Constitution, Ruto proposed that the country put together a multi-sectoral team chosen by the different sectors such as the religious sector, private sector, Civil society and youth groups to shape the country’s future.

“Maybe that group of  multi-sectoral committees or leaders can then give us a road map if we need a body of experts to help us think through and to consolidate all our thoughts. My suggestion would be whatever it is that we do, they should not go and dictate to citizens what they think, they should go and listen to citizens or citizens themselves to tell us how they want this to go into the future,’ he said.

He added: “Part of the challenge we had with our Vision 2030 was that it wasn't underpinned by any law. It was a mere suggestion and therefore different administrations decided what to do. They didn't they were not obligated in any way to implement the national vision. So others came and tried to push that, and it wasn't coherent. If we do not have a coherent plan, then we drift. Therefore, it is important that we also agree on legislation that is going to guardrail Kenya into where we all want it to go.

Ruto’s proposal to anchor the post-Vision 2030 into law was supported by the Leader of the National Assembly Kimani Ichung’wa, who assured him that the National Assembly would support his proposal through legislation.

 “We have today constituted ourselves as a people's constituent assembly to start that journey of even anchoring this process into law. I did suggest that probably it's time that we have a national vision like this; we not only anchor it in law but we also find a way within the governance structures of our politics,” he said.

He added: “Senate Majority Leader is telling me that I should say that since we craft laws or we have legislative proposals that we draft into bills and then take those bills back to the people for public participation. What we've actually done today is began with public participation. And we must look at a way where from this process we then culminate in a legislative proposal in terms of a bill that will now anchor this process of a national vision into law.

Ruto’s proposal to anchor a plan into law has ran into headwinds with scholars and legal minds who maintain that ‘projects or plans’ can never be anchored into law or in the Constitution, even as they ponder that the President might secretly be intending to introduce Constitutional amendments under the guise of a national development charter.

Prof Peter Kagwanja, the President and Chief Executive of the Africa Policy Institute and a political analyst, dismissed the government’s efforts to entrench the project into law or the Constitution, saying the Constitution gives aspirations and elaborate principles of governance.

“The Constitution is the spirit of the law, and we can’t review the Constitution to include a project or the plan and neither can we create laws to integrate the plans, even other documents such as the Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965 which is the foundational socio-economic and political policy document was not anchored in Kenyan law,” Prof Kagwanja said.

According to Kagwanja, the third President, Mwai Kibaki, introduced Vision 2030 and started its implementation through the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Policy between 2003-2007 and later implemented the first term of the Vision 2030 between 2008- 2013.

“When the fourth President, Uhuru Kenyatta, took over, he anchored his manifesto based on the second term of the Vision 2030 and started its implementation but things took a turn between 2017 and 2022 when Uhuru and his President Ruto, then Deputy, abandoned the plan and transformed the country into a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).

He said in 2022, Ruto completely abandoned the Vision 2030  when he introduced the Bottom Up Economic Agenda which derailed the plan and its implementation strategy," he said.

He described Ruto’s new development charter talks as a strategy to hog the media in a bid to shape the national conversation for his re-election matrix since it would be futile to convert plans into laws.

“Ruto is using a strategy that US President Donald Trump has been using to deflect from accountability and concerns,” he said.

“If he was genuine, he would have told us what he had done for the four years he has been in office to implement Vision 2030 and what he plans to do for the next one year, he would have listed the challenges he has faced and how to fix them,” Prof Kagwanja added.

However, when we reached out to Kisumu Governor Prof Anyang Nyong’o for a comment in regard to Ruto’s suggestion of anchoring the Vision into law the governor described the question as ‘complex’ and said he needed clarity on what exactly the President meant by that.

“It's a complex question, I would really need to get clarity on exactly what he meant, I can't respond to a question like that with some meaning, which people still don't understand... what is involved may need more discussion and that discussion, we can only hold with him who said it, not me,” he said.

On his part, Lawyer Macharia Wangui maintained that the President could be contemplating using the national development charter to sneak in proposals contained in the National Dialogue Report Committee (Nadco) report, such as the introduction of the office of the Prime Minister, the office of the Opposition and the entrenchment of the National Government Constituency Fund (NG-CDF) into law.

“ODM has been pushing for the implementation of the Nadco report which will also solve Ruto’s political headache in next year’s polls and since the expansion of the Executive would be an added advantage to him, he could have seen a window to call for a referendum,” he said.

Last year, the Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi hinted at having the 2027 general election alongside a constitutional referendum.

Mudavadi said some of the constitutional issues that need to be resolved can be canvassed into a referendum question (s) to be subjected to a vote by Kenyans.

He said if well-structured under the current IEBC, this process is manageable and progressive.

“We can use the 2027 election as the first example to have those issues that have never been resolved crafted well into sensible referendum questions that will help amend our 2010 constitution,” said Mudavadi.

“Kenyans should buy into this idea and we begin this discussion in 2026 ahead of the 2027 general election. If you can vote for six people on one ballot paper, I think we are now mature enough to include maybe two or three constitutional questions that can be dealt with so that we move forward,” he added.

Mudavadi who is also the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, said just like earlier examples, including the nullification of a Presidential election by Kenya’s Supreme Court this will not only set a precedent in Africa, but a successful process will attract global recognition.

“The reason I am putting this debate in the public is because we don't want to have arguments constantly on some issues that we know parliament may not want or manage to resolve. Same to the courts, and thus the voice of Kenyans must prevail.” noted the Prime CS.

The implementation of the NADCO report, he said, could be one of the main anchors of this debate.

“For instance, the NADCO report. We are not hearing much about it but Parliament was tasked to resolve the issues there. Now that there is too much back and forth, why can’t we take this to IEBC and they craft a question or two to be subjected to a constitutional referendum?” Mudavadi stated.

“There were issues of inclusivity or lack of inclusivity being raised. Perhaps when one wanted to talk about introducing it in the NADCO report plus the issue on whether we need to have a substantive Prime Minister, this could be a time to resolve it through a referendum ballot,” he noted.

Mudavadi defended the concerns about logistical and budgetary implications saying nothing will change much in terms of the cost of the election as the two exercises will run simultaneously.

He added that once the questions are well crafted and the ballot for the referendum is availed, Kenyans are mature and intelligent enough to vote for the political leadership and put their voice on a YES or NO question on the constitutional issues to be canvassed.

“I think this is the time. We have other issues like how to deal with the Constituency Development Fund; this matter has been a subject of back and forth between Parliament and the Courts, and we need to put it to rest and anchor it on our constitutional framework,” noted Mudavadi.

Mudavadi who is the former ANC Party leader and a key player in the formation of the current administration, said most of the issues that arise after an election and call for the review of governance structures create a lot of debate making the country in an election and political mood over and over again.

“Kenyans have been subjected to this debate of people being short-changed after elections; we have questions of structures that have to be negotiated, and to resolve these issues once and for all for them to become constitutional and avoid wasting more time after the general election, this proposal stands the test of time.” Mudavadi pointed out.

“It is time now that we also resolve the issue on gender; this debate on two-thirds gender rule has remained an endless discussion, and when people ask for public participation, what could be the biggest public participation if not a referendum,” he added.

Mudavadi said an approach to have the general election and a referendum if well managed will yield greater results and save the tax-payer a lot of money as well as save the country time to focus on other critical issues including development, job creation and turning around the economy at the expense of continuous politicking.

“First, we'll solve issues that our parliament has been unable to resolve. Two, we will get a higher voter turnout. And three, we will be moving the country away from constant bickering on an issue to now moving to the next phase of implementing some of those critical issues,” he said.