News
Revealed: What new constitution says
Posted Monday, November 9 2009 at 22:00
In Summary
- Team of experts does a balancing job of dispersing power and entrenching rights
The proposed constitution provides for an executive prime minister, a two-chamber parliament and devolution, according to a working draft seen by the Daily Nation.
In a sign of hope for reforms, the Committee of Experts has substantially finished writing the new constitution and is fine-tuning it in readiness for publication this week.
On Monday, Attorney-General Amos Wako was in meetings with the committee and therefore changes may be made to the draft reported here.
The draft proposes a radical overhaul of the way the country is governed. It proposes a majimbo system with governments at the national, provincial and country levels.
The national government will be made up of two houses of parliament and an executive consisting of the State President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet.
The draft will propose a powerful executive prime minister who will play the roles now assigned to the President in the current Constitution.
However, the prime minister will not be the head of state, chairman of the national security committee and the commander-in-chief, roles which will continue to be played by the president.
The prime minister is not elected directly by the people, rather, he is picked by MPs from amongst themselves.
The proposed draft constitution scheduled for publishing this week is promising to radically alter governance in Kenya.
The Cabinet will be made up of a maximum of 20 ministers, all nominated by the prime minister and appointed by the president.
The prime minister, who will be in charge of the running of the government, will have leeway to appoint up to half of his Cabinet from outside parliament.
The proposal effectively transfers executive authority from the presidency to a prime minister, who will be the leader of the party with the most MPs.
The president, who retains some powers, will still have to be popularly elected, and must get more than 50 per cent of the national vote in addition to 25 per cent of the vote in at least five provinces.
The president will still have the power to appoint public officials, but in consultation with the prime minister and at times with the authorisation of parliament.
The president will not be an MP and will not sit in the Cabinet. But he or she will remain the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and have the power to sign Bills into law.
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Submitted by baddiePosted November 12, 2009 05:58 AM
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Submitted by We_need_a_revolution
Regional and National/Federal govts.... thats all no need for the counties...
Posted November 12, 2009 02:27 AM -
Submitted by We_need_a_revolution
Regional and National/Federal govts.... thats all no need for the counties...
Posted November 12, 2009 02:27 AM -
Submitted by meanmaroon
This kinda of looks like a cut and paste job of US and British constitutions, helped along by a shot of whiskey. Maybe CoE, start by giving the public your rationales. One suggestion, the US tax rate is 35% while Kenya’s is 55%. How about letting Kenyans vote their tax rate? Also, in 15 out of 24 years of Moi, and 5 out of 9 Kibaki years, Kenya’s GDP was less than 2 percent. This is the real problem, tenure in the executive office. Cut it short to one term, like Mexico does.
Posted November 11, 2009 09:14 PM -
Submitted by kenyansoul
This is how our team of experts has decided to fix 2007 debacle. First by making the constitution just for ODM and raila. There is no foresight here but since Kenyans like learning from experience, I guess the next generation will have to fix it. The problem was simple; all the constitution needed is to rotate the presidency in all provinces. But the team of experts resulted to kill a mosquito using a bazooka. We will have the largest and expensive government in the whole continent with a lot of bureaucracy.
Posted November 11, 2009 08:24 PM
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Are we still singing the same old song? How about to have a government that is really functional and not-so-power hungry and that cares for the welfare of all Kenyans, create jobs, improve hospitals, schools, colleges, govt offices, quit corruption, cut the cabinet posts, pay ministers and MPs reasonably, exercise taxes to every Kenyan regardless of the office they hold....on and on..how about that song? Real mzalendo can sing to it!!!