Inside Raila’s Plan to Ensure Ruto Returns to Sugoi After 2022

Political temperatures in Kenya keep rising as the race for the 2022 elections seem to take shape just a year after the last general elections.

The now famous March 9th handshake seem to have even increased the Political temperatures even higher with different political factions either voicing their support or disapproval for the handshake.

One politician that seem so jittery of the handshake is DP William Ruto with his close allies reading an in-depth plan to have the man from Sugoi locked out of the Presidential race.

Ruto has however remained steadfast and focused to the main prize which is getting to Statehouse. His main political rival Raila Odinga on the other hand is pushing for a referendum to have a number of changes made in the constitution, calls that Ruto has been so against.

Raila Odinga and his team have now made suggestions to the Building Bridges Initiative Committee that might end up being adopted if they are taken into consideration and subjected to a referendum.

Raila Odinga and ODM want the President’s term slashed to a single seven-year term.

ODM is also proposing the reduction of the number of Members of Parliament by half.

The proposals that would trigger a referendum are likely to be the next battlefront between ODM leader Raila Odinga and his political nemesis, Deputy President William Ruto.

Raila’s party also proposes a parliamentary system of government and a three-tier government structure with 14 regional blocs.

The opposition outfit also wants the Directorate of Criminal Investigations delinked from the command of the national police and made a constitutional agency.

It wants the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission abolished.

In sweeping changes, the Orange Party proposes drastically slashing the size of the bicameral Parliament from 416 to 208 lawmakers. It wants the Senate empowered as the Upper House. Nominated seats would be abolished in both houses.

The head of state would be barred from seeking reelection

The Building Bridges task force has started public hearings across the country and its final report could alter the country’s political terrain ahead of the 2022 General Election.

“We wish to reiterate that the document remains a discussion paper to stimulate conversation that will lead to the formulation of a national ODM Party position that will be presented to the BBI Task Force at the appropriate time,” Secretary General Edwin Sifuna said after the document leaked.

According to ODM, MPs will have the powers to elect the President who will then appoint the Prime Minister.

“This will remove focus on the presidency that has become the trophy of ethnic competition,” the internal document reads.

According to the proposal, the 14 regional blocs, each made of several counties, will elect a Regional Premier and deputy.

In April, Ruto had trashed the proposal backed by many governors who believe the changes would be a major assault on their current powers.

“Rearranging devolution cannot be by creating another layer. It should be by taking the counties to the wards. We cannot take devolution upwards. [It should be taken] downwards. That is where devolution has to go and we don’t have to change the Constitution for that,” Ruto said

Raila’s party wants to get rid of the EACC. The agency has been seen as moribund in the anti-graft war, despite a massive budgetary allocation. The DCI appears to be the main driver of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s corruption purge.

ODM is pushing for decentralisation of the IEBC that would involve creating national and regional commissions to oversee the electoral process.

The party also wants commissioners appointed on a part-time basis by political parties with enhanced public participation to build credibility.
Will Ruto buy Raila and ODM’s ideas and support a Referendum for the same?

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