The Senate had last evening (Thursday) received more than 121,000 written memoranda from Kenyans rejecting a Bill seeking to extend the term limits for the president and other elected leaders.
Insiders within Parliament said no Bill — including the recently rejected Finance Bill, 2024 that triggered countrywide protests — had received that level of public backlash.
At the time of going to press, the emails were still trickling in, with at least one memorandum being sent per second.
The window for public participation for the controversial Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2024 closes on Friday, with a planned public participation forum at KICC.
The Bill by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei has triggered uproar, with Kenyans opposing it as an attempt by the political class to hold onto power. The proposed law increases the terms of service for the president, senators, MPs, MCAs and governors from the current five years to seven years.
This is the second attempt to alter the presidential term limit since President William Ruto was elected in 2022.
The first attempt was fronted by Fafi MP Farah Yakub who sought to scrap the term limit.
The lawmaker proposed the removal of the term limit and instead replaced it with an age limit of 75 years. However, the proposal flopped due a public outrage.
The President also rejected the scrapping of the term limit.
The National Council of Churches is among thousands of organisations that sent memorandums to Parliament rejecting the proposals.
NCCK termed the bid unnecessary as the current five-year term provides sufficient time for officeholders to implement policies.
“Extending the term beyond this period is unnecessary as 10 years (two-five-year each) is already enough to ensure significant development without prolonging the presidency,” NCCK Secretary General Canon Chris Kinyanjui said.
Ufungamano Joint Forum of Religious Organizations also opposed the Bill, saying the move to introduce the constitutional changes is self-seeking and self-centred to benefit the ruling class.
“Increasing the term of the president and other elected leaders, including MPs from five to seven years and creation of the Office of the Prime Minister, does not add value to the improvement of governance in the country,” the group said in the submission signed by 11 of its officials and members.
The group urged the Senate to listen to Kenyans and withdraw the Bill.
In the Senate, the Star established that nearly all, if not all Kenyans who had submitted their views on the Bill via email by 4 pm, had rejected the extension of the term limit.
“99.9 per cent of what we have memoranda that we have received via email are rejecting the Bill in totality,” a source said.
“We are receiving the memoranda at the rate of 45 to 60 per second or one memorandum per second. By the end of the deadline tomorrow (Friday), we are likely to have 200,000 of them,” the source added.
The Bill has been undergoing public participation since October 2.
More Kenyans are expected to make oral and physical submissions during Friday’s public participation forum by the Senate’s Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee at KICC.
“The committee will hold a public hearing on the Bill on Friday, October 25, 2024, at 9 am. Members of the public are welcome to attend this hearing,” the notice by Senate clerk Jeremiah Nyegenye reads.
The Bill was read for the first time in the Senate on September 26, before being committed to the Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee for consideration.
Already, the clergy, a section of the political class and other Kenyans have expressed their reservations with the proposed law.
In Parliament, the Senate leadership is mulling tightening conditions for the introduction of a conditional amendment Bill by a member.
The Senate leadership is currently considering amending the House rules to compel any member who seeks to introduce a constitutional Bill to first secure the signature of two-thirds of the members.
“First of all, if you want to bring such a Bill, you bring it to the members and collect 45 signatures (two-thirds),” Narok Senator Ledama Olekina said.
“Once you do that, go to the speaker for approval before you bring it to the House.”
The Senate Minority Whip Stewart Madzayo said that some of the Bills introduced in the House are a pipedream and only work to waste public money.
“It is raising so many eyebrows if you say parliament wants to amend the constitution to increase the term limits of elected leaders. We do not want to amend the constitution,” he said.
Anglican Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit said any attempts to alter the structure of the constitution will require a referendum.
“Our constitution says it is five years per term. [To eff ect] any change, Kenyans will have to go to a referendum,” he added.
"The Bill amends several articles of the constitution to, among others, extend term limits of elected leaders. The Bill proposes to amend Article 136 of the Constitution, which provides for election of the President, to increase the term of President from five years to seven years,” the Bill states.
Currently, the constitution limits the term of the President to a maximum of two terms of five years.
Further, the Bill creates the Office of the Prime Minister similar to the proposals in the National Dialogue Committee and the Building Bridges Initiative reports. It states that the president shall appoint the Prime Minister from among the MPs.
"The Prime Minister shall be the leader of the largest party or coalition of parties in Parliament,” the proposed law says.
It further seeks to enhance the powers of the Senate by giving it the exclusive mandate to vet some state officers.
“This Bill therefore seeks to increase the parliamentary role of the Senate by addressing the issues that have hampered the implementation of the constitution,” it states.
The Senate has largely been seen as ‘an idle’ House with a limited mandate compared to the National Assembly.
On Wednesday, Kiambu Senator Karungo Thang’wah dismissed Cherargei’s Bill as a political manoeuvre by the ruling Kenya Kwanza Alliance to cling to power.
“They want to change the constitution to stay in power because they know they have lost the people’s trust,” the senator said.
The lawmaker added that President Ruto and his allies were quietly behind the move to extend the term limit for elected leaders.
“Looking at where Cherargei hails from raises a lot of questions as to why he will want to sponsor such kind of a motion at the moment," he said.
“Probably he is a proxy for leaders who want to stay in power for as long as possible, let him know that Kenyans are totally against his push to extend term limits.”
However, National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah dismissed claims the government was behind the Bill.
“That Cherargei legislative proposal on term limits is dead on arrival, period. He should save his own time, that of other Senators and taxpayers money,” he said.
The ruling UDA party has also dismissed and disowned the Bill.
"The Bill does not seek to pursue any meaningful objectives beyond illegitimate, myopic and retrogressive ends with the masterminds and sponsors of the constitutional amendment Bill evidently preoccupied with sensational distractions and perverse indulgence in political delinquency and legislative mischief,” Secretary General Hassan Omar said.