Kenyans are now being entertained again by our political comedians as they fight over who is to get the coveted post of deputy president to act as the running mate. We are even seeing a panel of old men and women chosen apparently to deliberate on who is to get the ‘job’.
The 2010 constitution gave us great leaps in many areas such as devolution. But it also gave us some useless constitutional posts like those of deputy president, deputy governors and women representatives. No deputy has ever shone on any job that they have done. The posts are mainly ceremonial and they serve at the behest of the president or governor in power. Most are idle. However, they are also not expendable as they hold security of tenure by virtue of being constitutional offices. That is the reason why no matter how much the president is infuriated by his deputy, he can only cry like a kid at public barazas. He cannot fire him. Many governors are in the same boat today of not seeing eye to eye with their deputies. These are useless constitutional offices. Now you can imagine the number of such useless offices that the Bbi was proposing and you understand why ordinary Kenyans were overwhelmingly against it. The political conmen had to resort to bribes and intimidation to have it passed down our throats. Thanks to God the courts in their great wisdom trashed it. Also special tribute to Ruto for seeing through that nonsense and having the courage to stand up against it.
Back to the dp’s and dg’s posts, i believe they really play no role and the money used to pay them would more usefully go to fund health or education. If an office holder dies(president or governor) then the office should be held by the speaker until replacement election is held in say three months. But i also think the post should be made optional for anyone who wants to fill it in his administration and he should have the power to hire and fire. You should choose the person you feel will help you in your administrative agenda and if you disagree, fire him and hire another one. It should not be a constitutionally protected post.
Now to the political/economic crisis in Sri Lanka. President Gotabaya has refused to resign even after widespread protests against his govt. Thus is after he and his dynastic family mismanaged the economy of that country such that it is experiencing some of the highest inflation figures in the world and is unable to service its debts to the point of risking losing a port to the chinese. The reason i bring this up is because i have observed that most countries with this kind of leadership problems are mainly those with presidential systems of governance. I always say parliamentary forms of government are best especially for Africa. Africa has remained a dark continent for long mainly because if powerful despotic presidents. A parliamentary system is more representative and power is highly decentralized from an individual. The prime ministers are more transprent and accountable to parliament because parliament can much more easily remove them and hold them to account. If Russia was a parliamentary democracy Putin would not have started the Ukraine war as easily as he did without parliamentary support. But as a despot he can do anything by making individual decision without much worry about personal consequecies.
In this context, i know Raila is not as visionary as he likes us to believe. He missed pushing for a parliamentary system way back in 2005 to 2010. Recently he was pushing for a useless Bbi arrangement instead of the real system that can change Kenya. Political elites like him love the presidential system as it gives absolute power to an individual rather than to institutions and systems. He cannot fool me that he is Wanjiku’s president. He is self serving.
Same wolf different colour of coat. Parliamentary systems hakuna difference when in the context of our tribal govts since tribal lords will still control their parties so hakuna venye uta argue that mtu kama Uhuru could be impeached when he has control of parliament through jubilee and odm. You can still impeach him in a presidential system.
Raila was always for a parliamentary system, if you go back to the Bomas draft you will realize that it was pro-devolution and parliamentary, and this caused the fallout that birthed the Kilifi Wako draft (pure presidential system, rejected at the referendum). The push continued through the Naivasha talks, where a compromise had to be reached i.e. Give me a presidential system and I will give you devolution, otherwise there would have been a stalemate. So the devolution which many celebrate today is a culmination of an prolonged struggle and intense negotiations particularly from the ODM/Opposition part of the divide. I don’t think it is accurate to say that Raila missed to push for a parliamentary system.
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You’re entitled to open your own thread with a good summary such as the one here giving an alternate view. Since uingie hii Kijiji hujawahi post OPED hata moja other than kupost links za umeffi
I think he is mtu wa kusema na kutenda. Whether what he is saying is wrong or right in other peoples opinion, he stands by it sio kufichaficha kama vile wenzako ma conmen walijaribu kuficha ficha the foul smelling bbi kwa kuipaka manukato kwa kuhonga ma mca. Ruto is like Martha Karua. They are honest enough to say what they believe in.
They are very different. For one you dont give the poor ill informed masses the duty of choosing an imperial president for five years. Its an insult to me as informed as i am to line up on the same day to elect a national leader with a pokot fellow who lives in the bush thinking that cattle rustling will change a country to a first world economy in 2022, or a turkana who lives naked in grass huts and lays under a tree the whole day waiting for manna, or a meru/mbeere youth who thinks that growing miraa/muguka and driving it to the market to sell it to zombies by overspeeding recklessly is economic progress, or that kikuyu youth who left a fertile farm to drink everyday at the local shopping centre, or that woman who toils hard everyday only to leave a big chunk of her hard earned earnings to the local conniving pastor on sunday who promises fake miracles. Its an insult to line up with you with your rudimentary opinion on governance systems. Let our role be to elect our local leaders
Secondly, parties have meaning, ideals and long lasting relevance. Today parties are briefcase and are only used as tools to gain power. That is why every election they morph up into coalitions that crumble once the goal is reached. We have hundreds of them. You only hear them on election time. In Kenya, every eletion we have new parties/coalitions. Research on the role of parties in a parliamentary system
Thirdly, it is not easy to impeach a president and they know that. It is very easy to dismantle a government in a parliamentary system. It only takes a coalition partner to pull out. And those partners come from long lasting party with specific ideals
Fouthly, the most politically secure and stable countries in the world are parliamentary democracies. Thats for a good reason. Even when their politics are at their hottest, govts fall and others are formed without much of a buzz and everything continues smoothly. Look at say Britain, or Israel for example. Again look at Africa wholesomely and see where we are. Do your research on the parliamentary system of government. Na si ile parliamentary fake ya grand coalition govt wakati Raila alikuwa a ceremonial prime minister. Fanya utafiti fukuza ujinga
All this and more was what we hoped for before the 2010 constitution. Lakini jungle software imehijack na kuharibu kila kitu. There are no rules made in Kenya that have ever succeeded in reigning in tribal kingpins. You can write whatever regulations about governing parties lakini hakuna venye bonobo wataacha kuchagua tribal kingpins. Ukitoa presidential elections kutakuwa na National Party elections that will yield to the whims of tribal kingpins. Whatever system of govt you propose it will always come back to decisions made by majority of Kenyans running jungle software. That’s the real problem sio hii maneno ya parliamentary or presidential system. Hizo ni pretty costumes meant to hide the ugly truth of governing tribal societies that won’t yield to modern nationalistic ideology.
Halafu tukichoka na hio system utaskia a disgruntled tribal lord in the opposition aki incite his people that hawajapata uongozi so they must create a position for losers e.g a ceremonial presidency or give him an opportunity to lead. And on goes the shafting, do you see the pattern and the precedence being set? Do you want a country with 10 prime ministers in one term ju some tribal lord somewhere wants to eat his share? That kind of instability could lead to a civil war which is what presidential systems hedge against. Parliamentary systems work in stable countries with strong institutions. Show me a 3rd world country that is better off because it switched from presidential to parliamentary sio kunipatia biased comparisons with first world countries that adopted the system 100+ years ago.
Party elections are irrelevant since it does not mean party officials end up in parliament as elected members and the prime minister must come from parliament. Secondly, there are no African examples to speak from since majority overwhelmingly chose the presidential system that has left us in dark ages today. Thats why African countries need to change to parliamentary. Thirdly, a presidential system greatly enhances tribalism. Why would a person from the coast be forced to vote for a person from central. Thats why national leaders stoop low to regionalism by trying to mobilize tribal block votes. Conmunities are incited against communities. However, if everyone was voting for their regional leaders, tribe becomes irrelevant since those elected leaders will end up in parliament and get a prime minister from the party with the majority seats. He can come from anywhere as long as his party trusts him. Today the presidency is left to only majority tribes. Good luck getting an El-molo president
You don’t have to write paragraphs to justify your support for Ruto, it is your democratic right. They are all the same. Raila was championing the parliamentary system but he does not operate in a vacuum, there are other politicians too, like ruto, etc. If they were all honest, they could have pushed for it but Raila had to back down and give in to a presidential system so that we can have devolution.
They are all liars, we are back to 2017, when the masses were justifying support for uhuruto despite the massive looting that was happening between 2013-2017. Despite the economic hardships that everyone knew were coming, some of us chose to vote twice to ensure we faced them. It was predicted hard times will reach us and Raila decided to do the handshake so that we can deal with it as we wanted. Now the same fellow that looted is being championed as a"hustler", " mtu wa kusema na kutenda" yet he is part of the problem.
What Kenyans needs is new fresh leaders, nothing else, the constitution the way it is good but are Kenyans willing to implement it to the fullest?
Ruto has never advocated for anything, from multipartism to the current constitution, also he is one of the biggest liars, so you saying he stands by what he said is sugar-coating him. We all know the massive support Ruto enjoys in central is not because he is visionary but it is because of the natural hatred of Raila in central that’s why even Uhuru has not campaigned in central for Raila.
If Raila was to drop dead today or stand down for health reasons today, the massive support Ruto enjoys will drop to zero, he’ll be back to the demon he is inside.
In 1963 , Jomo Kenyatta had 19 ministers , 7 Provincial Commissioners , 41 District Commissioners and a 188 member Elected Parliament …
And it worked very well …
A Deputy Is not really required …
Just simply rotate the task among the Ministers … :D:D:D