Nairobi: Four Nasa principals closed ranks to set the ground for constitutional change around the Bomas Draft. They would like the country to not only have an elected president and a deputy, but also an appointed prime minister, who will head the Cabinet. However, the draft that the National Super Alliance (Nasa) is now rooting for could be a long way coming as it was altered drastically after the Bomas talks in 2005, leading to the rejection of the final document in a national referendum opposed by Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, now the President and Deputy President, respectively.
The Constitution was changed in a 2010 referendum - ushering in a purely presidential system that had been opposed by Odinga’s camp before they made a U-turn and backed it. But, following protracted, high-stakes elections in 2013 and 2017, Nasa now argues that the time is ripe for Kenyans to reconsider the document, which the opposition coalition’s principals said is “what Kenyans wanted.” Odinga, Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula agreed at a meeting to revive debate on the draft, which they believe is the best guide to end regular political conflicts blamed on the winner-take-all system.
“The Bomas Draft contains cures to the problems of inclusion, strengthening of devolution, the shape of the Executive, and security sector reforms,” Nasa leaders had said in a statement issued after a meeting at Odinga’s office.
Change constitution
Odinga and Ford-Kenya leader Wetang’ula were both quoted as calling for talks on the overhaul of the seven-and-a-half-year-old document. “Events in the country are crying out for a non-contested constitutional referendum,” Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua, a close ally of Musyoka, said of the renewed Nasa push. “The Bomas Draft is perhaps the best reference document in the said review. If Jubilee and what is left of Nasa cannot agree on anything else, at least we must be able to agree on the need to fix what is not working for Kenya in the Constitution.”
Produced at the Bomas of Kenya Delegates’ Conference in 2005 - spearheaded by law professor Yash Pal Ghai - the document that came to be known as the Bomas Draft proposed that Kenya has a President, a Deputy President, a Prime Minister, and several ministers.
Examine afresh
In the recommendations that Nasa now wants examined afresh, the Deputy President will remain the President’s principal assistant, with a full mandate to take over if the Head of State is incapacitated. Orange Democratic Movement secretary-general Edwin Sifuna, while confirming Odinga’s meeting with his allies said the Bomas Draft was becoming attractive because “it was a people-driven process. We will always hold the Bomas Draft as the best expression of the people’s aspirations, but right now the focus is on electoral justice,” said Sifuna.
