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| The Kenya national Assembly |
Many people don’t appreciate or rather haven’t realized the fact that the coveted house at the mountain top is going to be accompanied with “dire” consequences and stringent checks and balances. This to me is a thumbs up though we have not yet reached the promised land - the proverbial Canaan. We are still in the desert under the leadership of Moses. More so the constitution will take some time to be amended and realized. The sad part is that the forces in the previous regimes that we have been fighting against are still in the present government and very much alive. They have the potential to arm twist anything with the goodwill of the people to suit their interests.
However all is not lost, there is something to smile about at the end of the day for the young generation. Imagine a president who has to declare his running mate, who will be vying for the post of deputy president. The two will have to be ambitious and at the same time take a big gamble. Only people who believe in themselves as national leaders will have the guts to go for the two top most spots in the land. Declaring their intentions means, in case they loose out on their leadership bid, they will have to stay a whole term without a political post which in terms of political time is almost a century. In addition, if the president dies after being declared the winner and has not been sworn in, the new constitution declares that the deputy president takes over and is sworn in as the president. Interestingly! While we are used to the clause that the if the president dies the vice takes over for 90 days, the new constitution puts forth that it’s the speaker of the national assembly who will take over for 60 days after which we proceed to a general election.
The constitution spells out clearly, that for the president to run the business of the country smoothly, he really needs the support of the national assembly rather than what Wanjiku thinks: that the senate will be more powerful. This is owing to fact that the most of the approvals need to be done by the national assembly. Take for instance, most of the expenditures have to be approved and monitored by the national assembly through its various committees. Let’s hope for a better Kenya but the best is not yet realized.
