High intrigue behind ODM’s change of tune

• CONSTITUTION: Reports that senior leaders of the party who have long voiced loud opposition to what they called ‘imperial presidency’ suddenly showed up at the Naivasha retreat to support it raise more questions than answers about their game plan

If Mzee Joseph Kiboi Theuri was to return from the grave, he would disbelieve the parliamentary team that has been holed up in Naivasha trying to hammer out a deal on the constitution.

On Thursday afternoon of October 18, 1968, Mr Theuri, the first Nyeri MP, had put a strong fight for creation of the post of PM. Mr Theuri wanted a government headed by the prime minister who also chaired Cabinet, a premier who “would attend Parliament to be heckled by everybody”.

His motion was defeated and he died before the post was created.

The House team has all but spelt a death sentence to the position of prime minister with their choice of a pure presidential system.

Unless the decision is overturned later, the powerful and influential post which has graced Kenya’s political landscape twice — held by founding President Jomo Kenyatta and now Mr Raila Odinga — will be removed from the public bureaucracy.

The Naivasha team’s decision, which is likely to hold to the end, upsets the political arithmetic that calculating politicians had begun to place on the post as an attractive bargaining tool.

According to the House team, the outcome was informed by the desire by Kenyans for one centre of power with strong checks — probably a lesson from the dysfunctional PNU-ODM coalition which occasionally projects the President, Prime Minister and their ministers reading from different scripts.

But perhaps more intriguing is the sudden change of heart by forces initially opposed to the presidential system in favour of the parliamentary system, notably politicians in Mr Odinga’s ODM party.

ODM leaders have been shouting themselves hoarse in support of the parliamentary system as the best way to check an “imperial presidency”. They had wanted a governance structure with the prime minister as both head of state and government and a figurehead president.

But sources close to the Naivasha negotiations who were unwilling to be identified breaking House rules because the talks were held behind closed doors, revealed that the proposal to adopt a presidential system was initiated by ODM deputy leader William Ruto and seconded by his colleague, deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi.

On January 12, Mr Mudavadi addressed a press conference after a meeting of ODM ministers — including Mr Ruto — where he announced that the party will root for parliamentary system in a new constitution. The meeting was chaired by Mr Odinga, the party leader.

He said ODM was for the system where government is accountable to the people through Parliament as opposed to the presidential system which he described as “undemocratic and opaque”.

He said the concentration of power in one centre had bred tribalism, dictatorship and bad governance.

“A parliamentary system will cover the diversity of our nation,” he said.

He said those calling for retention of imperial presidency were not “serious about having an accountable government”.

Mr Ruto had voiced a similar view in a newspaper article on October 20, 2008, in which he opined that the parliamentary system was the “best hope for Kenya”.

“No known presidential system has worked anywhere. The majority have turned out to be dictatorships,” he said.

In his article, the minister said the president in our system is both head of state and head of government, is in charge of the police and all armed forces and, more dangerously, every public servant serves at his pleasure.

For the ODM deputy leader then, it did not matter how many times Kenyans vote for such a presidency: “It will never work for them.”

He advised that with a parliamentary system of government, Kenyans would have an accountable, transparent, consultative and participatory government.

According to him, the system has worked in India, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan and The Netherlands.

It is hard to tell whether interest in the presidency motivated the politicians’ change of tune. Of those MPs in Naivasha, Mr Ruto, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Narc-Kenya chairperson Martha Karua, Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula have expressed interest in the presidency. 

However, sources privy to the talks attributed the success to the “steadfastness and level-headedness” of PSC chair Abdikadir Mohammed.

The MPs are said to have distanced themselves from parties to voice independent opinions. However, Ms Karua and assistant minister Peter Munya reportedly took “hardline” positions which at times slowed the pace of the negotiations.

Gachoka MP Mutava Musyimi who is associated with the Ufungamano initiative on constitution review says he was “impressed” by the commitment and the sense of consensus that guided the talks.

“I am glad that the issue of the executive has been sorted out. It seems serious thinking went into it,” he said. “It is a major breakthrough but we need to see a how the meat sits on the bones.”