Good people,am yet to read the whole draft. But I have come across some very grave mistakes,as follows:




President not to run for member of parliament…Proposal sounds good,but what are the implications? Once you stand for president and lose,you stay in the cold for another 5 years! Yet,the presidency being the highest seat in the land,usually attracts the most ‘astute’ politicians. A number of them,if they don’t win the presidency,can make a major contribution towards policy issues in parliament as MPs or ministers (Remember Charity Ngilu,Mwai Kibaki,Raila Odinga etc) all stood at some point and failed,but went on to contribute in Parliament. Plus you do not want to keep senior & influential citizens like those idle for 5 years! NSIS will tell you they need to be kept busy. The ideal way,let all presidential candidates also contest parliamentary seat at the same time,whoever wins surrenders his MP’s seat and a by-election is held in that constituency – the same way we deal with house speaker. THE PROPOSALS IN THE DRAFT MAKES THE PRESIDENCY VERY DULL AND UNATTRACTIVE,I DOUBT IT CAN ATTRACT ANY SERIOUS CONTENDER…EVEN ME,WITH ALL MY LIMITATIONS,WOULD NOT BE WILLING TO CONTEST!!




PM to automatically be leader of largest party or coalition…First things first…this draft does not define what a coalition is or when it is formed. Is it before elections or after? If two party stalwarts appear in a media briefing and declare a coalition has been formed there and then..will this still be a coalition? And recognized by who? A serious omission here! And this leader,how does the party get to choose him?? And what if the guy who won presidency is also leader of his party? And what if this largest party,has Mps from one or two regions only… say Rift Valley and Nyanza (most likely scenario in current set-up)??

Now,lets get down to business,this draft gives the PM virtually all the powers – As per the clauses there-in (read very carefully),the president is supposed only to act ON the advise of Prime minister not even WITH advise from prime minister. This basically means the constitution has prohibited the President from ever thinking for himself,he is supposed to wait for advise from PM - IF IT EVER COMES and then act!! These small words can lead to huge implications. And now,with all these powers,the masses have no say whatsoever on who wields them!! This negates the basic reason why democratic elections are held in the first place – to allow the people decide on who is best qualified to govern them. If the CoE has ears,this section needs to be redone afresh! Again about the leader of largest party…assume in a parliament of 210 MPs there are five parties. 4 of them have 40 members each…and one has 50 (to make 210). If we allow MPs to vote for PM,may be the leader of party with 50 members will not necessarily win!! As he does not have clear majority…If we go for leader of largest party,we end up with an unpopular leader..BELIEVE YOU ME THIS DRAFT WAS CREATED FOR & WITH PARTICULAR LEADERS IN MIND.. AGRAVE MISTAKE!! One way would be to allow each party with at least 25% members appoint one of their own to run for PM in parliament. Then the Mps vote for the one most qualified…



3. Now about these regional governments…I combed through the draft and didn’t see any concrete role that these sub-governments will play.. If the desire was to enhance pace of economic development in the rural areas.. why not improve on CDF? The regional governments will only lead to more corruption and laxity and forum for idle minds….Where will they be based by the way???? THIS IS THE NEXT MOST SERIOUS MISTAKE!!



4. Have they also thought about implications of doing away with provincial administration? What wrong has the Provincial administration done? Why not enact laws to correct these excesses if any? And are we entrusting the current functions of provincial administration into the hands of politicians?



GOOD PEOPLE….THERE ARE VERY SERIOUS ERRORS IN THIS DRAFT. ..WE DO NOT KNOW WHERE TO RUN IF IT PASSES IN THE CURRENT FORM!!

As an Skerian,I acknowledge that I have benefited immensely from the info posted here by others. There4,I promise to assist others in the same way by responding to request for info,as long as am privileged in the subject issue..SK Pledge..

@ BAAK

Those are real issues - Kudos

Though I feel that we owe nothing to any politician who contests and loses as to arrange a soft landing for them.

Kenya is not short of astute persons. Infact there are many great minds of same age as persons mentioned who are not in politics.



B.timer

Political parties in Kenya are run like fiefdoms.

In both cases of the last two elections,the party that won was hurriedly sewn together just months before Dday.

These parties are mere vehicles to power devoid of any ideals or ideological philosophy.

That is why parliamentary form of government isnt a route for Kenya to take.

An eye for an eye will leave the nation blind

l find the draft fine bora the issue of exec power is sorted out!

The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.

I was listening to Mutahi Ngunyi yesterday and he had some interesting things to say on this draft. One grabbed my attention.

The coup in Nigeria happened due of circumstances similar to what's being proposed in this draft,a president who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces; and chairperson of the National Security Council yet the PM controls the Ministries including the ever important Finance Ministry. Imagine the Nigeria scenerio playing out here,the PM decided to under-fund or denies the military funding?

...ili iwe funzo!

Further to the posts below,and with all due respects,am seriously beginning to doubt the capacity of this CoE to help us get the constitution we need. To start with,will there be an audit of what they are doing? I mean,what guarantees me that if I write to them they will consider my opinions? Will anyone audit to confirm that all the submissions they received were considered and taken into account…when they say (in their website) that there is consensus that there is need for devolution in Kenya – this consensus is amongst who? The people who attended their briefings are a very small fraction of the whole country,my views on devolution (and many other peoples’) were not taken into account…So this consensus on devolution was between who and who? I guess most proponents of devolution (such as the ones who were at Bomas) are the people who just want positions for themselves…



As a very minimum,the basic idea behind formation of CoE was to (professionally) review whatever proposals were made by laymen (ordinary people like me and you) and see if they were workable first and foremost…Meaning,before we confirm that these devolved governments are the way to go,we would need to very carefully establish their role,their day to day mode of operation,cost of operation,to what level can they be manipulated to fan tribalism and undermine national unity,etc. This would require input from many stakeholders and professionals,least important of whom would be lawyers such as the ones currently constituting the CoE.



Without very lengthy / open / frank / wide consultations and input from a mix of stake holders and professionals,I think it is very hasty / risky for us to change an entire way of government,(which is still working for us) –based on consensus between laymen and politicians?,if anything,if COE could not even spell out the functions of these county governments,they should have at least referred the issue back for much wider consultation involving many other stakeholders,key government ministries,professional bodies of engineers,architects,accountants,security agents,civil society,NCCK,Supkem,etc so that full implications are ESTABLISHED,DOCUMENTED,AND VERIFIED,ETC? Why should anyone expect me to blindly endorse a system of government whose full implications have not been analyzed broadly and documented? Why also is the media quiet/non-committal on such an issue of grave importance?


As an Skerian,I acknowledge that I have benefited immensely from the info posted here by others. There4,I promise to assist others in the same way by responding to request for info,as long as am privileged in the subject issue..SK Pledge..

Mtaalam ....Two bulls cannot live in one boma.......the PM and President issue needs to be sorted out .....otherwise we'll be in dire problems.......Unless we go for a piecemeal adoption/rejection of the draft.......this may be the only contentious issue that may bring down the otherwise good draft constitution.......

Ministers from outside the parliament also needs to be checked or we have professionals ministers being elected from one region only.............There should be some regional balance since we have professionals from almost all corners of the Country......



Rules of the game here: Before you post anything think.give facts only..It's a serious blog for serious people....Do not insult your brother....respect one another...Just be good.... It's good to live a honest life....life without guilt.... Jeremiah 17:11 As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid,So is he who makes a fortune,but unjustly; In the midst of his days it will forsake him,And in the end he will be a fool.' From the SK Anti-hate/anti- corruption campaigner..

Feeding wananchi on more unrealistic expectations

http://www.nation.co.ke/...6/-/up7r7a/-/index.html

I understand the Bill of Rights. But this journalist's interpretation as usual is going to throw the ordinary mwananchi totally off tangent.

Is hunger more a factor of the law or economics? Do people starve because there is no law telling the gava to provide for them or because the country (due to mismanagement or otherwise) cannot afford it?

Anticlimax ahead.

I will be letting my views known tothe review commission.

One suspicious thing is how our MPigs irrespective of party affilliation have agreed to work together so that they can take power away from the people. Whoever has the money becomes the President. I understand the former Somali president elected at The Grand Regency had to cough enough dollars to each of the Somali MPs for him to get elected. This is one of the funny proposals being floated around.

Another issue is how the various chapters relate. The constitution should be clear on the hierachy of the various clauses. For example,we have freedom of worship enshrined in the proposed katiba. If I join a religion which believes in some funny sacrifices,I should not be taken to court. It will be my constitutional right to do whatever I wish all in the name of Freedom of Worship.

Another issue is the issue of changing all leases to 99 years. Kenyans may be cheering this. But do you know that within the next 35 years all the rural land will have reverted back to the government. Imagine someone coming from some remote village going to the lands office to renew their leases. Is it wise really? What do we gain as Kenyans from such a situation? Why our obsession with land? The land in contention is less than 3% of our land area. Solve the coastal land matters seperately and leave land matters out of the constitution. Land tenure if interfeered with can hamper investments as is the case with our two neighbhouring countries and that is why the cannot do horticure farming despite having plenty of good land and a suitable climate.

On the powers of MPigs have over the constitution,any constitutional changes made by Parliament should be subject to a vote at the next general election. The US uses this system on state matters. eg. Californians voted on gay rights in the last election. It is not just a matter of the House.




Baada ya dhiki,faaraja

BAAK,

Unfortunately,the US system proves that the direct vote system/parliamentary system; one gets the same results if there is proportional representation.The popular vote winner has always been the indirect vote winner except in three instances in US history.


Ali Baba