Cotu Secretary-General Francis Atwoli addressing workers during Labour
Day celebrations at Uhuru Park, Nairobi, on May 1, 2018. PHOTO | JEFF
ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
A daring suggestion on Tuesday by trade unionist Francis Atwoli
to extend President Uhuru
Kenyatta’s role after the end of his fixed 10-year term “because he is young” was met with indignation by a section of Kenyans, who termed it “warped” and the brainchild of “hardliners” within and around State House.
Kenyatta’s role after the end of his fixed 10-year term “because he is young” was met with indignation by a section of Kenyans, who termed it “warped” and the brainchild of “hardliners” within and around State House.
Mr Atwoli said that
letting President Kenyatta, who will be 60 when he retires in 2022, go
without any well-defined role in his retirement will be an exercise in
futility as “his base will not accept it”.
And, arguing
that lack of enough senior positions within the Executive has been the
driver of Kenya’s high-octane, often violent politics, the Central
Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) Secretary-General called for an
amendment of the Constitution to bring in an expanded structure.
CONSTITUTION
“We
need to amend the Constitution,” Mr Atwoli told workers during Labour
Day celebrations at Uhuru Park in Nairobi. “Let us use the Bomas Draft,
because the problem we have now is exclusion. Not everyone can be
president, (and so) the Constitution should be amended to accommodate
more people.”
As he embarked on a
short philosophical argument on why this is the right time to start a
national conversation on the post-Uhuru years — he said the unveiling of
a 14-member team to spearhead the implementation of the March 9
handshake deal between President Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila
Odinga was the bulwark needed to cushion the two after 2022 — Mr Atwoli
did little to prepare his audience for the bombshell brewing within his
chest.
“If we do not amend the Constitution, where do
you think Uhuru will go, and he is a young man?” he asked. “We must
amend it and fix him somewhere, or he’ll start disturbing those who’ll
take over.”
DISMISSED
The
suggestion was immediately dismissed by Senate Majority Leader
Kipchumba Murkomen and Tharaka-Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki, who termed
it “an insult to workers” as it had been made on the day the nation
paused to celebrate and reward the labouring masses.
“I urge Uhuru to look at respected leaders like (former US President Barack) Obama, who retired at 54,” Governor Njuki told the Nation
on the phone. “If he does not want to destroy what has been a
hard-fought legacy, he should not allow people to impose him on Kenyans
after 2022.”
The governor argued that
while the President might not even be interested in the proposed roles
or a continued stay after 2022, “some hardliners around him” were
selling him the idea because they want to “hold onto power at the
expense of democracy”.
OPPOSE
“I will oppose this kind of change because it is oppressive and selfish,” he promised.
Mr
Murkomen, a close ally of Deputy President William Ruto and the
Elgeyo-Marakwet senator, described the suggestion to accommodate
President Kenyatta as warped thinking and an attempt to “create jobs for
those who are already in authority”.
Mr
Odinga, who was at Uhuru Park when Mr Atwoli made the suggestion, and
whose party has backed calls for the reintroduction of a Prime
Minister’s position, avoided the constitutional change debate in his
speech.
Mr
Musalia Mudavadi, who was also at the venue, and who this weekend
called for an expanded executive, also refused to comment on the matter.
DIFFERENT TACTICS
This,
however, is not the first time politicians and national leaders have
proposed carving a role for President Kenyatta from the executive when
his second term ends. It has taken different forms and employed
different tactics, including hushed conversations on whether to amend
the Constitution to allow Mr Kenyatta to come back as Prime Minister or
some other powerful title.
Initially,
the suggestion was to keep President Kenyatta in politics but only as
Jubilee Party leader, but this has since mutated into political office
with perks.
“People want Uhuru to go
home at 60 yet Raila is trying to be president at 75. Where do you want
Uhuru to go?” Jubilee Party vice-chairman David Murathe, who was not
available for comment yesterday, told the Sunday Nation in March, but insisted that his was a personal and not party position.
Still,
this was a loaded statement, especially because it came barely a week
after Tiaty MP Kassait Kamket proposed a one-term, seven-year ceremonial
president and a powerful executive Prime Minister who would hire and
fire the Cabinet.
BOMAS DRAFT
Now
Mr Atwoli is reviving that debate by proposing a re-examination of the
Bomas draft constitution of 2005, which proposed the positions of
President, Deputy President, Prime Minister and ministers at the top.
The
Prime Minister, who had to be the leader of the largest political party
or coalition in the National Assembly, would be appointed by the
President from among MPs with the approval of Parliament.
The
Premier was proposed to be the head of Cabinet with two deputy
premiers, a maximum of 20 and a minimum of 15 ministers, and an equal
number of deputy ministers. The ministers, the document proposed, were
to be appointed by the President upon being nominated by the PM from
among members of the National Assembly.
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