The Building Bridges Initiative was started on the
9th day of March 2018 after president Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, decided
to shake hands and unite the country that was at the brink of war. What
is now commonly referred to as the Handshake in Kenya.
They thereafter jointly formed a team of individuals who held public
participation forums across the 47 counties in Kenya to collect views on what
changes Kenyans would want.
The BBI team collected
recommendations from 7,000 Kenyans and compiled them in what is now the BBI
Report that was released on Wednesday, 27th November 2019 to the public for
further discussion.
Depending on the response from the public after reading the BBI report,
Kenyan might have a referendum to amend the 2010 constitution resulting in
change of government structure.
PROPOSED CONSTITUTION AMENDMENTS
Nomination of Members of the
national assembly and county assemblies
The Bill proposes that candidates to be
nominated from a party list for seats in the National Assembly and county
assemblies shall be allotted on the basis of the total votes received by their
political party as opposed to the current practice where such allocation is
based on seats won by a political party.
Clause
45of the Bill proposes to amend Article 177 (Membership of county assembly) to
change the nomination of candidates from being based on seats won to being
based on the votes received by a political party in an election.
Executive to be represented in the
National Assembly and establishment of the office of the leader official
opposition and office of the prime minister
The
Bill proposed that the Executive will be represented in the National Assembly
by the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime
Ministers, Cabinet Ministers Deputy Ministers and the Attorney-General. The office of the Leader of the Official
Opposition is established. The existing disqualifications for the members
of the county assemblies from being qualified to be elected as members of
Parliament are removed.
The
Prime Minister is to be nominated by the President from among the elected
Members of the National Assembly from a political party having a majority of
Members in the National Assembly through a stipulated procedure.
Enhancing devolution
·
Clause
12 of the Bill proposes to amend Article 96 (Role of the Senate) to enhance the
oversight role of the Senate on matters relating to all county revenues and
their expenditures. The existing provision only mandates the Senate with
oversight role on the national revenue allocated to the county governments and
does not expressly extend such mandate to counties’ own source of revenue and
borrowings and their expenditures.
Increase of constituencies and
members of the national assembly
Clause
13of the Bill proposes to amend Article 97 (Membership of the National
Assembly)to increase the number of the
members of the National Assembly elected from constituencies from the current
290 members to 360 members. This is a consequence of the proposed increase in
the number of constituencies.
Further,
this amendment proposes to include the Leader of the Official Opposition, the
Cabinet Ministers who are not members of the National Assembly and the Attorney
General as members of the National Assembly.
Further,
the amendment provides for the nomination of persons with disabilities and the
youth to the National Assembly. Lastly, special top up seats are created to
ensure the gender principle is actualized. However, in filling of the special
top up seats, it is provided that a first priority in the nomination shall be
given to candidates who contested for the constituency seats and were not
elected.
Scrapping off of the position of
women representative and creation of position of women senators
It
is proposed for the Senate to have ninety-four members, each county represented
by a woman and a man elected by voters in the counties. The position of women
rep has been scrapped off.
Creation of the position of the Leader
of Official Opposition.
It
is proposed the Leader of Official Opposition shall be the person who received
the second greatest number of votes in a presidential election and whose
political party or coalition of parties has at least twenty-five per cent of
the members of the National Assembly.
Broadening the executive structure
The
Bill seeks to amend Chapter Nine of the Constitution on the Executive to
broaden the executive structure to achieve inclusivity, cohesiveness, and unity
for the benefit of the people. This
Chapter introduces the office of the Prime Minister and two Deputy Prime
Ministers, with leadership roles in the executive and Parliament. It also
provides that Cabinet Ministers may be appointed from among members of the
National Assembly.
Female deputy governor
Clause 47of the Bill proposes to amend
Article 180 (Election of county governor and deputy county governor) to enhance
gender parity in the governance of counties by providing for the candidate of
the county governor, in nominating a deputy governor, to consider a person of
the opposite gender.
Equitable
share and other financial laws
Clause 50 of the Bill proposes to amend
Article 203 (Equitable share and other financial laws) to ensure the average
amount of money allocated per person to a county with highest allocation does
not exceed three times the average amount per person allocated to a county with
the lowest allocation. It further increases the percentage of funds allocated
to county governments from fifteen to thirty-five to strengthen devolution and
ensure that county governments have adequate funds to carry out their
operations
Clause 54 of the Bill proposes to insert
new Article207A (Ward Development Fund) into the Constitution to establish the
Ward Development Fund. The Ward
Development Fund shall comprise of at least five per cent of all the county
government's revenue in each financial year and ensures equitable
distribution and development in the wards of money allocated or collected by
the county government.
Conclusion
BBI being an initiative that seeks to cure political issues that have
faced the country since independence, it is expected that three
political groups will emerge. Those that support BBI, those that reject
BBI and those that have no interest in it. As it stands, Raila Odinga’s party ODM seems to be fully in support
of the BBI while jubilee party is divided between two groups: Deputy
president William Ruto’s supporters identified as “Tanga Tanga” that
started opposing BBI before it was released and president Uhuru
Kenyatta’s supporters identified as “Kieleweke” that are in support of
the BBI referendum.
