Raila wants fewer MPs in draft law

• Economy may not sustain proposed number, PM says and calls for chop

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Sunday asked the Committee of Experts to cut the number of MPs in the proposed constitution.

Speaking in his Lang’ata constituency, Mr Odinga argued that the 349 MPs suggested by the Parliamentary Select Committee was too big for the economy to sustain.

The 26-member PSC met for 11 days in Naivasha to seek cross-party consensus on the harmonised draft, and gave its report to the experts last Friday.

Recommendations

The Committee of Experts begins its meetings on Tuesday to consider the MPs’ recommendations which, though welcomed by many, also have their share of critics.

“I agree with you that the number suggested for MPs may be too big for our economy, and I hope that the CoE will pay attention to this. Let them use their expertise and come up with a figure that all Kenyans are comfortable with,” the PM said.

This was in response to the concern about the high number of MPs, raised during the meeting at Raila Village, next to the upgraded houses in Kibera.

Some NGOs have also called for a reduction, among them the Centre for Law and Research.

“We support the creation of special seats for interest groups. However, the proposed figures are too high,” Clarion executive director Morris Odhiambo said.

The PSC agreed on 80 new constituencies, 47 special seats for women and 12 nominated slots.

A member of the committee of experts who sought anonymity because she is not the team’s spokesperson confirmed that they will meet on Tuesday to look at PSC’s recommendations.

“We are meeting on Tuesday to discuss the document and see how we can proceed. It is a bit premature to say what will happen because we are just going through the report and expect that, by Tuesday, we shall have gone through it so that we can decide the next course of action,” she told the Nation.

The PSC vice-chairperson, Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba, said that his team was in constant touch with the experts to ensure the two teams worked closely and harmoniously.

“We are starting consultations with the CoE this afternoon. My colleague Abdikadir (Mohammed) and I on one side, and the committee’s chairman Nzamba Kitonga on the other because our roles are complementary. We are not in a supremacy battle,” Mr Namwamba said.

Mr Abdikadir Mohamed is the chairman of the PSC.

Mr Namwamba allayed fears that the experts may reject some of PSC’s recommendations on grounds that the MPs meeting in Naivasha exceeded their mandate by discussing chapters not categorised by the CoE as contentious.

Misconception

“Under the law, the committee of experts is under obligation to incorporate the recommendations of the PSC. There is a misconception that PSC’s mandate is to only resolve contentious issues. It is also mandated to go through the entire document because all the chapters are interlinked. You cannot look at a chapter as contentious as devolution without looking at the interrelated chapter of public finance,” he explained.

Speaking in Kibera, the Prime Minister supported the pure presidential system arrived at during the Naivasha retreat.

He said a pure presidential system will make the president a “real father of the nation” with the whole of Kenya as his constituency.

“The president’s constituency will be the entire country and not some small constituency in a part of the country,” he said, adding that the country was better off with either a pure presidential or parliamentary system as opposed to the current power sharing arrangement, which he described as a “mongrel”.

Mr Odinga said critics who had accused him of backing a parliamentary system so as to take over the country’s leadership through the backdoor were malicious.

And, speaking at Kamukunji Grounds in Nairobi, Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) secretary-general Francis Atwoli also supported the Naivasha recommendations and asked the experts to incorporate them in the draft constitution.

“Any attempt to mutilate the document that came out of Naivasha talks will be met with equal force from Cotu because what came out of Naivasha met our expectations,” he said.

Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala termed as ‘encouraging’ the outcome of the Naivasha talks, and asked the experts to iron out any outstanding differences.