Raila gets ODM party report on proposal to amend Constitution
ODM leader Raila Odinga. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
The party is required to go through the proposals before forwarding them to BBI team that was formed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Odinga to receive public views on the constitutional amendments.
The party wants the system of government changed from the current presidential to parliamentary and introduction of the post of Prime Minister and his two deputies.
ODM leader Raila Odinga Tuesday received the report of the party’s technical committee on proposal to amend the Constitution.
This comes as the civil society dismissed the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) as driven by other motives other than public interest.
The technical committee chaired by Mr Koitamet Ole Kina made the presentation to ODM Central Management Committee (CMC) that Mr Odinga chairs. Other members of the committee are the party's secretary-general Edwin Sifuna and former Permanent Secretary Carey Orege.
The CMC also has Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, his Mombasa counterpart Hassan Joho, party chairman John Mbadi and a host of other MPs as members.
Mr Odinga briefly chaired the meeting before he left Governor Oparanya in charge as he rushed to meet the Teachers Service Commission Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia.
The party is required to go through the proposals before forwarding them to BBI team that was formed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Odinga to receive public views on the constitutional amendments.
According to Mr Philip Etale, ODM’s director in charge of communications, the CMC recommended that the report be fine- tuned before it is approved then forwarded to the BBI for consideration.
“The CMC agrees with the report in its entirety because it resonates with the thinking and wishes of Kenyans,” Mr Etale spoke to the Nation on phone yesterday.
The party wants the system of government changed from the current presidential to parliamentary and introduction of the post of Prime Minister and his two deputies.
It also wants the President to serve a non-renewable term of seven years, introduction of 14 regional governments on top of the national and county governments as well as elevate the Senate to upper House status with veto powers.
“The party wants these regional governments to be modelled along the lines of the former eight provincial administration units and which includes splitting others for equity,” a source at the committee told the Nation.
