WHY PUNGUZA MZIGO MIGHT PASS.

Ekuru Aukot, the man who has so far been held with little regard might soon occasion a major restructuring of our constitution in terms of representation and balance of power among the political class. His popular initiative proposal for a constitutional changes having been approved by IEBC is set to go to counties for approval where only a simple majority of them are required to support.

Significant in his proposals are the below 9 point changes.
1. Introduction of a one seven-year term presidency.
2. Reduction of the number of MPs from the current 416 to 147.
3. Electing one man and one woman from each of the 47 counties to National assembly.
4. Abolishing nominations in county assemblies and senate.
5. Elevating senate to be upper house with veto powers.
6. Increasing counties revenue allocation from current 15% to 35%.
7. Replacing CDF with ward development funds.
8. Life sentence for culprits guilty of corruption.
9. Abolishing of the position of deputy governor.

The major change as reflected by the name of the initiative Punguza Mzigo is the significant reduction in the number of politicians both elected and nominated from 416 to 147.





The route taken by Third Way Alliance to amend this constitution is provided for under Article 257(Amendment by Popular Initiative) and lists the steps to follow as thus:
(1) An amendment to this Constitution may be proposed by a popular initiative signed by at least one million registered voters.
(2) A popular initiative for an amendment to this Constitution may be in the form of a general suggestion or a formulated draft Bill.
(3) If a popular initiative is in the form of a general suggestion, the promoters of that popular initiative shall formulate it into a draft Bill.
(4) The promoters of a popular initiative shall deliver the draft Bill and the supporting signatures to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, which shall verify that the initiative is supported by at least one million registered voters.
(5) If the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is satisfied that the initiative meets the requirements of this Article, the Commission shall submit the draft Bill to each county assembly for consideration within three months after the date it was submitted by the Commission.
(6) If a county assembly approves the draft Bill within three months after the date it was submitted by the Commission, the speaker of the county assembly shall deliver a copy of the draft Bill jointly to the Speakers of the two Houses of Parliament, with a certificate that the county assembly has approved it.
(7) If a draft Bill has been approved by a majority of the county assemblies, it shall be introduced in Parliament without delay.
(8) A Bill under this Article is passed by Parliament if supported by a majority of the members of each House.
(9) If Parliament passes the Bill, it shall be submitted to the President for assent in accordance with Articles 256 (4) and (5).
(10) If either House of Parliament fails to pass the Bill, or the Bill relates to a matter specified in 255 (1), the proposed amendment shall be submitted to the people in a referendum.
(11) Article 255 (2) applies, with any necessary modifications, to a referendum under clause (10).

Since IEBC has verified and approved the signatures collected, Third Away Alliance has therefore passed stage 5 and so the next step is for IEBC to submit the draft bills to the counties and await the outcome.
The MCAs at the counties are the ones to consider the draft bill and interestingly the bill has a juicy aspect for them that will most likely motivate their agreement. That they are staring at the possibility of being patrons for Ward Development Fund as has been the case with MPs over CDF. What with the scrapping of CDF, an idea that already plays into the egos of MCAs waiting to display their importance as compared to MPs who now have no fund to brag with. Both current and aspiring governors will also likely support this for the sole reason that county allocations are now being increased by over 100% from the current 15% to 35%. Senators too, who are constitutionally charged with protecting the counties, and most of whom are aspiring governors are expected to support it. This stage  thus, unless something queer happens or the determinants fail to get it, can be considered done.
The next stage does not need any energy and the only remaining hurdle is the national assembly who will, and have already show the likelihood of opposing it. And so the bill gets to stage 10 where it is brought to the people to make their decision.

Kenya's Deadly Succession Politics. The Case of Prof George Saitoti.

Presidential succession politics in Kenya are the most difficult, risky and perhaps deadly. This is a snapshot of the life of one of Kenya's former vice presidents and how he didn't become.

George Saitoti who happens to have been Kenya's longest serving vice president, having served as president Moi's vice from1989-1997 and also from 199-2002 died in a plane crash in June 2012. Prof Saitoti was known to be a wealthy man. Indeed some ranked him as one of the richest men in the country with city businessmen Jimmy Wanjigi and Jared Kangwana as some of his longest family friends. In Maasai land, he was close to Harun Lempaka who had unsuccessfully tried to unseat William Ntimama from Narok North parliamentary seat, the then DPP Keriako Topiko and Alex Magelo who later became speaker of Nairobi county assembly.
Saitoti jetted back to Nairobi from Mombasa on a Saturday and called Sapalan, who had traveled to Kilgoris asking whether he could accompany them to Ndhiwa for a funds drive at Orwa Ojode’s rural home. Sapalan left Kilgoris early, trying to dash to Nairobi to link up with the minister. He however still arrived late only to hear that Saitoti and his Assistant Minister Ojode had been killed in a helicopter crash
The late Professor had lived on edge as though agents of death kept following him. His paranoia started off with a near-fatal food poisoning that traumatized him to the end of his life. This happened in February 1990 in an Indian restaurant in Nairobi’s Muthaiga area and on the day that the Foreign Affairs minister, Dr Robert Ouko, went missing. When he returned after a few months, Prof Saitoti denied “rumours” that he had been poisoned. He would later say that he did not know those who killed Dr Ouko because he “was unconscious when Ouko was being killed”. This was after President Moi had told a public meeting that the people who killed Dr Ouko were the same ones who “poisoned my vice-president” claiming they wanted to overthrow his government.

The man who was the internal security minister at the time of his death had declared his interest for presidency in 2013 general elections. Away from being the internal security minister, he had assembled what was said to be the most powerful and well-oiled campaign machine in modern Kenya drawing his strategy behind the scenes. This is according to his chief campaign strategist Peter Kagwanja who is the husband to Foreign Affairs CS Ambassador Monicah Juma.
The team was composed of two US technocrats, political scientists said to have been strategic to the Obama campaign team, Jimi Wanjigi who later became the NASA chief financier and Maina Kamanda who was assistant minister and Starehe constituency member of parliament. Also in the team was PNU organizing secretary Peter Ole Sapalan a close confidant and friend of the late Saitoti. Retired president Moi would later also reveal that he was working to boost the late Saitoti's bid for presidency.
Maina Kamanda and Ole Sapalan were tasked with mobilisng political support while Jimi Wanjigi was in charge of mobilizing campaign resources and at the time of Saitoti's death he had managed to mobilize campaign money running into billions. After Saitoti's death, the whereabouts of these billions was later to be the subject of a quiet debate among his relatives and friends in business and political circles, neither Jimi nor Kamanda willing to divulge any information regarding this cash. It is claimed that the campaign billions were wired into a foreign account days after Prof Saitoti’s death
Kamanda would later reveal that Saitoti was organizing a week-long trip to London starting June 18, the same month he died, where he was to open a PNU office and meet Kenyans living in the UK and later to the US for a similar mission. In fact at the time of his death, Maina Kamanda was in Washington to coordinate the trips and was forced to fly back moments after learning of his demise.

The only other people who would have shed light on Saitoti’s missing billions are his wife Margaret and brothers Johnson and Ronald Musengi, a commissioner at the National Police Service Commission. Margaret and Ronald maintained studious silence on the matter. Only Johnson and the professor’s long-time lawyer Fred Ngatia, opened up, but declined to discuss anything touching on Prof Saitoti, citing privacy.

Being president in Kenya is not a walk in the park, regardless of how close one is. Prof Saitoti's years of experience in politics especially at the second most pinnacle, his war chest and privilege as Internal security minister could not be underrated.

  

1989-1997 and and again from 1999-2002 Read more: https://www.tuko.co.ke/54000-photos-the-top-five-longest-serving-vice-presidents-in-kenyas-history.html#540001989-1997

1989-1997 and and again from 1999-2002 Read more: https://www.tuko.co.ke/54000-photos-the-top-five-longest-serving-vice-presidents-in-kenyas-history.html#54000

1989-1997 and and again from 1999-2002 Read more: https://www.tuko.co.ke/54000-photos-the-top-five-longest-serving-vice-presidents-in-kenyas-history.html#54000