MPs to vote for election date Bill on Tuesday

The National Assembly will on Tuesday make a decision on whether to push a Bill to change the date of the next General Election to the next stage in the legislative pipeline.

The vote requires at least 233 MPs to succeed.

That vote has been placed just after the motion on the extension of the deadline for passing the remaining Bills required to fully effect the 2010 Constitution.

If the deadline is not extended for passing the Bills, any person can begin a process that would lead to the premature dissolution of Parliament.

DECEMBER DATE

By placing that election date Bill just after the deadline motion, the House Business Committee envisages there will be sufficient numbers to vote. The Bill is sponsored by David Ochieng, which proposes a December election.

The Ugenya MP had hoped that Speaker Justin Muturi would give it a thumbs up.

Mr Muturi gave Mr Ochieng some encouragement when he spoke about his personal feelings about it.

“Having looked at the Constitution, the Bill has the effect of extending the term of office of the President.”

The Constitution does not expressly state how long the term of the President is but by having his election on the same day as that of MPs, governors and members of the county assemblies, whose terms are five years, the assumption is that it is five years, with elections being held in the fifth year.

Mr Muturi’s emphasis captured the essence of Mr Ochieng’s argument against the idea that by extending the term of Parliament by four months, MPs would also be extending the term of the President, which would require endorsement by Kenyans via a referendum.

Mr Ochieng’ argued that the reason the drafters of the Constitution put in the requirement for a referendum if the term of the President is to be changed was aimed at preventing a dictator-like Head of State attempting to go for a third term.

“The elections are to be done in the fifth year. The fifth year in my opinion runs between 2017 March and 2018 March and December falls right in between there,” he added.

Mr Muturi, however, disappointed the MP and other proponents of the Bill when he stated that despite his personal conviction that the matter need not go to a referendum, it is upon the High Court to determine it.

Kenya’s experience of referenda has been as an intense political contest and which in in one case, 2005, became the launching point of a major political party, the Orange Democratic Movement. Lately, the push for referenda by the Opposition under ‘Okoa Kenya’ and the governors under ‘Pesa Mashinani’ has been more of a political contest, with the issues disappearing in the haze of political dust.

Mr Ochieng was also abandoned by his party, the ODM, when it made the decision not to support the Bill after its latest retreat.

According to ODM Secretary for Political Affairs Opiyo Wandayi, it would be in the Opposition’s interests to have the Jubilee administration out of office as soon as possible, and an August 2017 election would offer them the earliest opportunity for that to happen.

CONVINCING REASONS

“An election date is so fundamental that it would need the people’s consent through a referendum,” he said and added: “That date in the Constitution was negotiated before endorsement by the people of Kenya.”

Mr Ochieng, however, told the Sunday Nation he feels nothing about the let-down by his party.

“It wasn’t a party Bill and that’s why their decision doesn’t move me. I knew that this would arise but I have very convincing reasons a December date would be the best for our elections. This is why I didn’t make it a party Bill and brought it as a private member’s Bill.

“There are things that a member will feel strongly about without the party feeling the same way. The allegation that the party has abandoned me is wrong because it was never a party Bill,” he said.

He said the party has not asked him to withdraw the Bill, which is a positive sign and argued that with the backing of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and colleagues who have spoken during debate, the chances are good for it.

His Bill is also based on a previous one by the Attorney General in 2012 that was approved by the Cabinet.

That proposed change to the then very young Constitution  was challenged by some civil society groups and was among the reasons the matter went to the Court of Appeal.

That court in July 2012 determined that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission should set the date of the General Election three months after the end of the Tenth Parliament in January 2013.