Bid to end ‘tyranny of numbers’

Activist Okiya Omtatah at a past press conference. The controversial March 4 Movement, associated with activist Okiya Omtatah, has come up with a draft introducing the new mode of electing the President. 

In Summary

• Mr Omtatah, one of the conveners of the movement, said this could be the answer to the “tyranny of numbers” which, he claims, has denied aspirants from small ethnic groups from winning the presidency.

By DAVE OPIYO
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Future presidents could be elected by the counties if a proposed amendment to the Constitution is adopted by Parliament.

The controversial March 4 Movement, associated with activist Okiya Omtatah, has come up with a draft introducing the new mode of electing the President.

The proposal was released yesterday at the start of the movement’s quest to collect at least one million signatures to amend the law.

It proposes that a presidential candidate will have to garner more than half of the 337 electoral points in the poll. An electoral point comprises each of the 290 constituencies as well as the 47 counties.

All presidential electoral points in a county would be given to the candidate who wins the presidential ballot, by direct popular vote in a winner-takes-all basis.

To be elected President, a candidate must win at least 169 presidential electoral points, being more than half of the 337 possible points,” it reads

If no candidate is elected, fresh elections are held within 30 days.

Mr Omtatah, one of the conveners of the movement, said this could be the answer to the “tyranny of numbers” which, he claims, has denied aspirants from small ethnic groups from winning the presidency.

“Each voter should be limited to voting where they are registered and not nationally. This will deny the large tribes the national stage they require to flaunt their tyranny of numbers,” he said.

He claimed they have collected 350,000 signatures and printed 10 million copies in English and five million in Kiswahili and “we will be printing others in the local languages in order to get our message across.”

He said that members of the intelligence services and politicians were distorting what the movement is all about.

Mr Omtatah said they were not interested in a referendum as their proposal could be adopted by a simple majority in Parliament.

“Should they reject it, it will automatically go to a referendum. It will not be us that have thrown it to a referendum, it will be the legislators,” he said.