An ODM senator has proposed radical amendments to the constitution to alter the terms of elected leaders and abolish nominated positions in what could trigger yet another public discourse.
In the proposed amendments, Migori Senator Eddy Oketch has proposes to reduce the terms of president to four years from the current five years and make deputy president the speaker of the Senate.
The lawmaker also proposes the terms of governors, members of the National Assembly and members of the county assembly be reduced to four years with mid-term, subject to mid-term elections every two years.
The lawmaker proposes the term of senators be increased to six years.
“I propose the reduction of the presidential term to a four-year term to align with that of members of the National Assembly, but elections for president and his or her deputy be done at the end of each fourth year,” Oketch says.
The proposal came in the wake of a bill by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei seeking to extend the terms for all elected leaders to seven years from the current five years.
The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2024, is being considered by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.
In his submission to the committee, Oketch abolishes the woman representative in the National Assembly and instead elevates them to the Senate.
This would see each county have two senators in a bid to respond to the elusive two-thirds gender rule.
“This is because, with the sunset constitutional clause of women affirmative action, it would be important to maintain the role of women in county representation as a functional one,” he says.
“With the introduction of the functional responsibility of the Deputy President as the president of the Senate, given the officer’s current function as chairperson of the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council. ”
“Thus, in case of a tie in voting in the Senate, the president of the Senate can break,” Oketch adds in the proposal that mirrors that of the US.
In addition, the first-term lawmaker wants the position of nominated senators scrapped since the elections of a man and a woman as senators would have sorted out the gender issue.
The lawmaker also wants the terms of the Senate increased to six years to enable presidential continuity and seamless transitions after presidential elections.
“Members of the county assembly have a four-year term with elections after every two years like that of the members of the National Assembly,” the Migori senator says in the proposal.