• One man's fantasy is another man's dystopian hell as politics wonk theorises future
The scenario below may seem outlandish to some, but for someone like myself who has kept tabs on Kenya’s politics for 35 years, nothing is impossible.
The date is September 20, 2027. In Kenya, it has been a couple of weeks since the General Election, the first under the new, no-term-limits Kenya Constitution promulgated in 2026.
This came about after a vote in Parliament that saw UDA and ODM and a few smaller parties score a two-thirds majority to change the 2010 Constitution.
There were rumours of MPs being bribed with as much as Sh5 million to vote with the UDA-ODM coalition to change the 2010 Constitution that was formed after the formal split of the Kenya Kwanza coalition in the middle of 2025.
The new party, formed by the merger of UDA and ODM, is known as UDAM (United Democrats Alliance Movement).
The Kenya Kwanza split saw a small minority of UDA legislators, loyal to embattled Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, formally join the Kalonzo Musyoka rump of the old Azimio Coalition in the Opposition.
The now former Deputy President made a deal with Musyoka, now the leader of the Opposition, and together they formed a new grouping, United Restoration Alliance (URA).
URA lost the Change-the-Constitution vote in parliament to UDAM’s tyranny of numbers and was unable to convince voters at the 2027 election that they deserved to be in power and will continue in the Opposition.
Meanwhile, under the new Constitution, which took effect immediately after the winner of the General Election was announced, the country now has a largely ceremonial President, with real power in the hands of a Prime Minister.
In the new dispensation, Mzee Raila Odinga, who failed in his bid for the chairmanship of the AU and thus returned to local politics, was selected as ceremonial President by MPs from the ruling coalition.
His main duty is to act as a symbol of the country’s unity. He is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and has the power to grant national pardons and reprieves, as well as to convene and adjourn the National Assembly under extraordinary circumstances.
Meanwhile, the new all-powerful PM is none other than former President William Ruto.
Under the new arrangement, the post of Deputy President has been scrapped and instead Kenya now has a President, a Prime Minister, two Deputy Prime Ministers and a Cabinet selected from elected MPs.
The Prime Minister, who is also an MP and the leader of the largest parliamentary party, has executive power but is appointed by the President, who has to choose the leader of the largest political grouping in Parliament to form the government.
According to the new Constitution, the Prime Minister is not only the leader of government business in Parliament but also coordinates the work of the Cabinet, which he appoints from his party’s MPs.
Meanwhile, the 2026 Constitution also saw the return of provinces as administrative units. However, instead of the eight former provinces, there are now 16 provinces, each headed by an elected governor.
Governors are chosen by members of the provincial legislature, typically from the dominant political party.
Governors in turn appoint elected members of the provincial legislature to be members of the provincial Cabinet to oversee various provincial departments.
The former counties have been broken down into smaller units called municipalities, each run by an elected mayor. There are now 94 municipalities.
As for the Senate, it now represents provincial governments rather than directly representing the people and is made up of 160 senators, 10 for each of the 16 provinces regardless of the population of the province.
Okay, dear reader, you can snap out of the nightmare, or fantasy, depending on where you stand, and get back to the reality that is life.
While I don’t want to give any of our so-called leaders ideas, I would like to say that the above scenario could easily become a certainty if Kenyans even think about relaxing their vigilance and oversight of the rogues we elected to govern us, even for a few minutes.
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