ODM leadership favours powerful prime minister

The Orange Democratic Movement wants the country to either adopt a full parliamentary system or a hybrid government with a powerful prime minister.

The party will present its proposals to the Committee of Experts after its law review team has compiled the resolutions passed during the weekend retreat in Mombasa.

On Sunday, ODM secretary-general Anyang’ Nyong’o said they had agreed with most of the proposals in the Draft law and were “happy with it.”

“We have made extreme comments on the draft Constitution and our technical team is putting them together. We are generally happy with the draft,” he told the Nation on phone after the retreat.

By making minimal proposal to amend the draft, it now means the political class has paved way for a quicker passage of the new Constitution.

Last week, 11 main political parties met in Nairobi and struck a deal on some of the contentious issues, among them the form of government and devolution.

Even though ODM was listed as part of the team, it quickly clarified that its position would be decided at the Mombasa retreat.

On Sunday, Prof Nyong’o who is the Medical Services minister, said the party’s legislators and members of the National Executive Council agreed with the CoE chaired by lawyer Nzamba Kitonga on the positions of the President and the PM as crafted in the draft.

“We agreed with the draft regarding the positions of the President and the Prime Minister but we made numerous recommendations on the functions of the two offices,” he said.

However, those who attended the meeting said ODM legislators had agreed on two options — either full parliamentary system or hybrid system.

The parliamentary system the party prefers, it was said, was the one in the Bomas Draft that proposes an executive premier who is elected by MPs. The second option was the hybrid system, as proposed in the draft, but with amendments to the functions of the President and the PM.
The President, to be elected directly by voters can either chair the Cabinet or in his absence the PM.

Further, the PM, who will head what they described as “government by cabinet” will be elected by MPs and will initiate and oversee implementation of laws and serve as head government functions.

This means that all the functions of the Head of Civil Service will effectively be transferred to the PM’s office.

Prof Nyong’o said they had agreed on the three-tier devolved system of government as proposed in the draft.

Other parties have said the three levels should be reduced to two to cut on costs.

“The full statement of our position on the draft Constitution will be released after technical team finishes its work,” the minister said.