Kenya Referendum Leaks: Creating Odinga-Uhuru Dynasty Through the Constitution?
Referendum part of Raila-Odinga deal
As debate about an impending Referendum in Kenya continues to mount, leakages about possible details of the proposed constitutional changes also continues to surface. Theoretically, the proposed Referendum is suspected to be a deal between Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenya who have agreed to create new positions in the Constitution to enable the Odinga, the Kenyatta and the Moi families to take over Kenya’s leadership for an indefinite number of years.
According to the latest details, one proposal is the introduction of Office of Prime Minister to be dished to Uhuru Kenyatta once his presidency ends in 2022 as Raila become President. Details extracted from a leak say that the Prime Minister will be elected by the people of Kenya in a General Election and that the PM will then be reporting to the President.
If passed, the new constitutional amendment will see the establishment of 2 offices of deputy Prime Ministers who will all be appointed by the President.
Another key change being envisioned is the abolition of the office of Cabinet Secretaries who will be replaced by 30 Cabinet Ministers appointed by the President. Once appointed, the Cabinet Ministers can only be sacked by the President.
Uhuru to be Prime Minister
On the negative side, there is a proposal that the 49 seats for Women’s representatives be scrapped together with nominated Senators, nominated members of the National Assembly, Deputy Governors and nominated MCAs.
Instead, the proposal suggests that there be 210 members of the National Assembly, 14 Counties across the country and 28 Senators with each county having 2 Senators (a man and a woman).
Apparently, both Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga have come to a compromise with Uhuru accepting to play ball because the arrangement will allow him to remain in government after his term expires in 2022. This will enable Uhuru and Raila Odinga to keep watch on the vast Kenyatta and Odinga empires which can both be threatened if an outsider like William Ruto takes over power in Kenya.
William Ruto to do time in Opposition
As an icing on the cake, the Kenyatta’s and the Odinga’s have decided to rope in the Moi’s to take care of the Rift Valley voters. This explains why both Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta have all been moving close to former President Daniel arap Moi while at the same time trying to draw Gideon Moi into the new Raila-Uhuru alliance.
Pundits have posited that the deal with Gideon is to get him into the position of Deputy Prime Minister while Hassan Joho has been ear-marked for the number 2 Deputy Prime Minister to please Coastal voters.
The political re-alignments are still at their nascent stages and the schemers are said to be concentrating more on the Referendum while down-playing the distribution of positions in the post 2022 government.
It is envisioned that under the new dispensation, Deputy President William Ruto will be doing time in the Opposition together with Moses Wetangula and Musalia Mudavadi. Kalonzo Musyoka has been moving closer to the Raila-Uhuru alliance and is expected to remain there are 2022 draws to a close.
