Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his Cord colleagues want the constitution amended to bring an end to the situation where one ethnic community can dominate politics by its numbers.
Yesterday Cord leaders were expected to meet with governors to finalise their plans to push for the amendment of the constitution which can only be done through a referendum. The governors have for several weeks been consulting to change the constitution to give them more powers.
Cord leaders now want to introduce their own proposal so that they can push for one referendum to decide on the two issues. The Cord proposal seeks to abolish the current presidential system and replace it with a parliamentary system to resolve what has come to be known as the ‘tyranny of numbers’.
Raila and other Cord leaders are proposing bringing an end to the direct election of the president through a popular vote. Instead they want MPs to elect the president. Currently the constitution says for one to be declared president he must get 50 per cent plus one vote of the popular vote.
“We want a situation where every small community in Kenya plays a meaningful part in deciding the country’s leadership,” said a senior member of the Cord coalition. If passed by this Parliament, the amendments will only come to effect after the 2017 general election. “We are not in a hurry to say so and so should step down as long as we have the constitutional amendment by 2017.
Our target is article 138 of the constitution,” said Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama. The section deals with the procedure for the election of a president, who participates in such an election, how it is conducted, the minimum percentage of votes such a candidate needs to get to be declared president and also under what circumstances a presidential election can be cancelled and a new election held.
“We need to move out of this tyranny of numbers system which is a source of ethnicity in the country and we move to a system that will bring unity in the country,” added Muthama. According to the constitutional amendment Bill which is presently being drafted, Chapter 9 on Executive will be amended to provide that the leader of the political party or coalition of parties that garners majority of votes in a general election is automatically declared the president.
All votes cast in an election including those of the county representatives, women’s representatives, governors, MPs and senators will be added together.
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