Politicians are engaging the citizens on the need to review the 2010 Constitution. The Constitution is a living document, and therefore there comes a time when changes are imperative. This could be or not be the right time for the changes. The Constitution espoused an inclusive society with measures to ensure the protection of the rights of the minorities and the marginalised. These include people, regions, beliefs, and ideologies. The framers of the Constitution were alive to the need for integrity and accountability both in the public and the private sector. To achieve these, constitutional commissions and offices were created. However, the dream continues to be elusive. Some of the state agencies are duplicating their activities, and sometimes contradicting each other. The result is a bloated wage bill, inertia, and plain incompetence within the civil service.
Devolution is a thought-out experience. It has proven to work where leadership is visionary. It is a tested example of bottom-up economics, in an attempt to have the Government closer to the people. This is akin to the Constituency Development Fund, which was designed to help people at the grassroots to achieve their development vision through government revenue. Whether the concept of Constituency Development Fund is conceptually sound, is a title to a different article.
The Constitution of Kenya 2010 has run through its first decade. A section of Kenyans believes that it is time to have an amendment to increase representation. This goes to debate without analysing whether the current representatives are representing the interests of their electorate. The Building Bridges Initiative proposed an increase of 70 Constituencies, in disregard of the current constitutional provisions that bestows the constituency and county boundaries review to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. The folly of this approach is that it will take a political turn, and influence the thinking of Kenyans towards the greed of the politicians. The increase in the number of constituencies will inadvertently tilt the scales in representative voting, where a few communities will enjoy an unfair advantage in the legislature. They will bring back the 'tyranny of numbers that Kenyans experienced and loathed after the contested Presidential elections in 2013 and 2017. The legislature was faulted for voting for bills based on the narrow party interests rather than the popular will of the citizens. In the melee, several bills were passed, including the controversial Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, No. 5 of 2018 and the Kenya Information and Communications Act Chapter 411A. Both pieces of legislation were widely viewed as draconian but were rushed through the legislative process, with little regard to conscience. Nevertheless, the national parliament is bloated, and the Kenyan public is grossly over-represented. The creation of two houses of parliament was a novel idea because one was specifically tasked to defend devolution. The irony is that devolution was the people's choice, yet a whole house is designated to protect it.
The National Assembly is made up of elected members from the 290 constituencies and 47 women representing the counties. There is a further elastic number of nominated members representing special interests. The size of the house betrays its significance. The 350 politicians cannot have adequate time to speak to issues of national importance in a seating. The House operates like a marketplace where legislators would sign in when they feel and sign out when the agenda is not interesting. Therefore, attending the parliamentary seating becomes voluntary, yet they earn huge benefits including seating in parliament. It becomes a challenge to gauge the contribution of individual members in their parliamentary role. The recall clause for members of parliament is a statement of democracy. However, in a system where people are concerned about their next meal, it is not feasible to have the recall clause taken seriously. It is necessary to reduce the number of constituencies to have it more efficient and effective in service delivery. This will provide the speaker with an opportunity to know each of his/her flock. The 47 counties can make a good start for the constituency delimitation.
With reduced national parliament constituencies, the current 290 can be converted into sub-national assembly constituencies. The elected members at the sub-national level will be meeting at sub-national assemblies in the eight regions. Nairobi should remain under the National Administration. The 8 are North Eastern, Eastern, Central, North Rift, South Rift, Western, Nyanza, and Coast. The regions would each elect a governor by popular vote. The governor shall appoint a deputy and not more than 10 ministers from among the members elected to the regional assemblies.
The education level for the candidates for election in the national and sub-national legislatures should be pegged to a university degree. This decision acknowledges that a knowledge society is a progressive society. To represent, one must have gone through the education system and earned a degree qualification. This will accord the contestant a superior comprehension of issues and motivate communities to enrol for higher education. The system should use the mode propounded by the earlier proponents of state and government who advocated for leadership by the philosopher-kings rather than rule by the appetitive elements.
The presidency should be enhanced to control the national economy, health, education, national security, defence, foreign policy, international trade, and natural resources. It should retain 80% of the national revenue to ensure equalisation in the eight regions. The election of the President should ensure an absolute majority of the popular votes cast and a further majority in four of the eight regions. After election and swearing-in, the President shall appoint a Vice President, whom he may replace at any time within the term. The president shall appoint not more than 15 ministers from among the members of parliament.
Appointments to policy levels of government shall be based on regional, ethnic, ideological, cultural, and religious balance. The political class should focus on service delivery as expected by the electorate. An independent commission shall conduct and publish scientific findings on the performance of legislators at both levels. This will be based on the fundamental functions of parliamentarians to represent, legislate, and oversight.
A constitutional review is not a bad idea. The challenge is the motive of the review. The guiding ideal should promote government efficiency while reducing redundancies and unnecessary costs to the taxpayer.
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