President to become ceremonial under new constitution
Kenyans will no longer directly elect the country’s chief executive if the proposed new constitution is adopted.
This role will belong to members of Parliament, who will elect a Prime Minister with executive authority from among themselves.
The President will still be elected directly by the people, but will remain head of State exercising only ceremonial functions.
This is one of the key highlights in the final draft of a new constitution worked out by the Committee of Experts.
Since the National Accord was sealed last year to end the post-election violence, Kenya has both a President and a Prime Minister sharing power under a loosely defined structure.
President Kibaki retains executive power but has to make all key decisions in consultation with PM Raila Odinga.
Under the new proposal, the President will cede executive authority to the PM, who will be head of the party commanding a majority in Parliament.
But the President will still have to be popularly elected, and require a new threshold of more than 50 per cent of the national vote, in addition to the current requirement of 25 per cent of the vote in at least five provinces.
The Committee of Experts, who ended a retreat in Amboseli on Monday, made minimal changes to their working draft which the Nation reported on two weeks ago.
Devolution
The only departure from the previous document is that they are now proposing that the President should not represent any constituency and should not sit in the Cabinet.
The experts have previously reported that although most Kenyans have expressed the need for more checks and balances through Parliament, they have also said they like to directly elect the President.
The draft also provides for a system of devolution based on eight regional assemblies and county governments based on districts.
On devolution, according to those who have seen the document, the new draft improves on the Bomas and Kilifi drafts by providing clearer provisions on relations between the central and regional governments, particularly on matters of taxation and jurisdiction of relevant institutions.
The draft also retains the Islamic kadhi courts as presently constituted. Some Christian groups have threatened to reject the draft if the courts remain in the Constitution.
Although the National Accord stipulated that adoption of a new constitution should lead to a general election, the draft proposes staggered implementation, harmonised with the present parliamentary calendar as well as the work of other institutions.
They include the Interim Independent Electoral Commission and the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission.
When the experts returned to Nairobi on Monday, their chairman, Mr Nzamba Kitonga, described their one-week mission as the “start of the drafting process”.
Sources within the committee have, however, indicated to the Nation that the main body of the draft was finalised at Amboseli and what remained was fine-tuning so that the document could be published as early as next week.
Other than being in charge of running every day affairs of the government, the PM will be responsible for the nomination of ministers for formal appointment by the President.
He will have the liberty of appointing up to half the ministers from outside Parliament, according to the document, which also limits the number to 20 ministers.
The President will remain as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and will still have the powers to assent to Bills into law.
