• If Kenyans feel the Parliamentary system is what works best for our society, then why not give a try.
• The handshake excluded key actors and this will be the first hurdle and the biggest challenge.
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My argument has always been that the timing depends on the purpose -whether it is the right or wrong time depends, largely, on why the push for amendment is all about.
For the past nine years we have lived with the Presidential system, we have conducted two elections under which we have seen the results and for various reasons they have almost brought the country to brink of collapse and I think the opportunity is right for us to examine and see whether the system we have works for us or not.
If Kenyans feel the Parliamentary system is what works best for our society, then why not give it a try.
Whether it cures the problems we have or not-it is not perfect also- but if what we have right now clearly does not work, then we may need to give other systems a chance so we also see if they work or not.
The system of governance was one of the core issues we had flagged out during the Constitution-making process and suggested it be revisited. It should be restructured and new ways of exercising executive power, especially at the national level, be explored.
We also tried to have a system that ensures there is duality or multiplicity in how power was held and shared.
A parliamentary system is what had been proposed in the Harmonised Draft Constitution and even the Bomas Draft.
Politically, we had agreed, especially post Naivasha, on the Presidential system, however, we felt that it was not the best system taking into account the multiplicity of interest from ethnic to religious interest, regional and many other interests.
Therefore, we thought that for such a society like ours we needed to have an executive that distributes power. But we conceded and accepted the proposal presented by a select team of MPs in Naivasha.
However, to achieve this, there are a lot of challenges. In as much as the handshake was to create room for inclusivity, that has not been fostered so far especially by the political class.
The handshake excluded key actors and this will be the first hurdle and the biggest challenge. The second challenge is that going forward, everything is tied to the 2022 elections.
BBI recommendations will indeed be exhaustively debated.
We may not have much time to discuss the recommendations as 2022 is beckoning. So the discussion will most likely be adulterated by political interests.
The constitutional lawyer was part of the Committee of Experts for the 2010 Constitution.