To be President or Not to be President, that is the Five Billion Shilling Question.

Last week, in the East African Newspaper, Muthoni Wanyeki wrote an article that was a tribute to a lady who had passed away after an unfortunate road accident.  Dekha Ibrahim worked tirelessy in peace efforts in the North Eastern Region of Kenya and her death is indeed a big blow.  Our thoughts and prayers remain with her children who are now orphaned, seeing as her husband and the driver both died on the spot.  Back to today's post.

Ms. Wanyeki wrote something that caught my eye.  She commented, I paraphrase, that she could not undrestand why the race to State House has attracted so many entrants yet the new Constitution emasculated the office of the President.  She put it down to the fact that most of the aspirants did not internalise that the Presidency shall never be as it has been under Presidents Kenyatta, Moi and now Kibaki.  Indeed, Kibaki has felt the clipping of his wings to a small extent, but I doubt he cares much.  If you want to read Muthoni's article, here is the link http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Dekha+Ibrahim+fought+tirelessly+for+peace++justice/-/434750/1202554/-/153anelz/-/index.html

This prompted me to look at what has been, what will be, and what is the difference between them.  I did what all execs do, got an intern to do a detailed analysis, and now I pass it off as my hard work.  (The summary is all my hard work though, I guarantee you!)

1.  Elections:  In the New Order,  for one to be nominated as a Presidential Candidate, he should have at least 2000 voters in a majority of the Counties adding their signatures to his nomination papers.  The Old Order had no such requirement at the nomination stage, a mere 2000 signatures were sufficient.  The "Old President" had to only have a simple majority in a first past the post system.  This meant even if more people voted against him by voting opposition, if he got more than opposition, he was declared and duly sworn in as President.  Under the New Order, the President must garner at least 51% of the total votes cast as well as a 25% county threshold to avoid a run-off.
2.  Appointments:  The Old President could hire and fire on the 1 O'clock News Bulletin, but the New Order demands all Presidential appointments must be vetted by the National Assembly.
3.  Directives:  The Old President could make new districts on the roadside as he made whistle-stop tours and they would have the force of law.  Under the New Order, all Presidential Directives must be in writing, and must be signed and sealed as well.
4.  Impeachment:  Under the Old Order, a vote of "No Confidence" in the President would see the whole Parliament also stand dissolved.  The New Order provides for the Impeachment of a President without affecting the life of the National Assembly.
5.  Immunity:  Previous Presidents all enjoyed immunity from Criminal Prosecution during the life of their Presidency.  The New Order demands that the President will face criminal charges for offences that are envisaged in any International Treaty Kenya ratifies for example gross violations of Human Rights.
6.  Commissions of Inquiry:  Any reports made by any Commission or Taskforce shall be published once they are presented to the President, unlike previously where their release and implementation was the prerogative of the President.


Is your head reeling yet?  Got room for more?  Here we go, we are not done yet, a couple more good ones.

7.  Power of the President over County Governments:  The President may set up a Tribunal to look into the conduct of a County Assembly.  If it is found to be inappropriate, he may choose to dissolve that particular County Assembly.  However, this is subject to approval by the Senate.  The Senate can also vote to "unsuspend" any suspended County Assembly if they find that the President suspended the County Assembly unjustifiably.

8.  Assent of Bills:  If the President did not wish for a certain law to pass, he simply withheld his Assent.  Under the New Constitution, if the President without cause withholds his assent, the law automatically passes after 7 days of receiving the Bill from the Speaker.  Of course within the 7 days he can send the Bill back to the National Assembly with suggested corrections.  A majority vote in Parliament can choose to ignore the President's suggestion, and they can go ahead and send it back to him as it was, at which point he either Assents or he doesn't, the difference is actually the same; the Bill becomes law after 7 days.  

Before you imagine that all I wanted to do is to bore you with facts and figures, let me make my point.  It is now harder for one to even make it to State House.  However, once you are there you find, you actually have little or no work to do.  Apart from being Commander in Chief, all other functions of the Presidency have been effectively taken over by the National Assembly and in one instance the Senate.  We will have a figurehead President, who much like the Queen of England, will spend a lot of our money but the actual elbow grease of running our country will be needed by others.

So it is still worthwhile to run for the Presidency?  If you cannot appoint all your in laws as Ambassadors or your cronies as Ministers, will it still be worth it?  If you cannot make declarations that stick, or if you are liable to face prosecution if you make an order as Commander in Chief that ends in loss of life?  Can you still call yourself President if you can suggest amendments to a Bill prior to Assent, only for your suggestions to be rubbished by a majority of members.  Remember, quorum for the National Assembly out of 350 strong will only be 50, so 26 members can say "we don't think so" and pass the Bill anyway.  Are you still President when you exercise your power to dissolve a County Assembly that is under performing only for the Senate to veto that decision?

Will we have a President really?  Or just a figure head.  Peter Opondo of Citizen when arguing out his reasons why he does not think Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi could run a Presidential Campaign indicated as one of his reasons, the fact that one needs at least Kes 5,000,000,000/= to run a campaign and clearly Prof. Kiyiapi had no such money.  However, why would you spend all this money anyway, to come and find the party is already over for the President and all that is left is the cleaning, washing up and putting away?

I have argued before, but maybe not on  this forum, that we traded an All-Powerful-President, for an All-Powerful-National-Assembly.  Dictatorship by one versus Dictatorship by 350.  Of all our elected Representatives, the members of the National Assembly can decide to gang up against the President and consign him to State House basically to "Keep House" rather than govern the State.  Will it really be worth it to run for Presidency come 2012, (or 2013 if our Parliamentary Dictatorship gets their way)?

Think about it, and tell me what you think.