Veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho on Friday, October 25, 2024, endorsed the controversial Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill 2024, which proposes the extension of the term of office of the president and other elected leaders from the current five to seven years.
In his statement, Gaitho observed that the bill could only be beneficial if it was restricted to a single non-renewable term of seven years.
“I support the extension of the presidential term from 5 to 7 years, ditto terms for governor, MP and Kanjura (MCAs). However, on condition, it is limited to one single, non-renewable term and applicable to all elective posts,” Gaitho said.
Constitution Amendment Bill
The bill has generated a heated debate in the country after the Senate Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs invited written memoranda concerning it, leading to a crash in the system due to thousands of responses.
“The upper house of the country’s parliament received more than “200,000 submissions, reaching the maximum capacity,” the Senate stated on Friday, October 25, 2024.
The bill sponsored by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei has faced criticism from various quarters including the senator’s party United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
UDA dissociates from Bill
“The party, therefore, dissociates itself from the repugnant and backward bill and calls any of its ranks and file who leads, supports or is in any manner whatsoever, involved with it, to order. The bill is incompatible with our policy and aspirations. This juvenile political experimentation and delinquent affront to our constitutional values must now be crushed to a halt,” UDA Secretary-General Omar Hassan said on October 2, 2024.
In the bill, Cherargei proposes that the term limits be extended to allow holders of the elective offices more time to discharge their mandates.
He argues that the litigation that follows the general elections eats into the term limits of elected officials and that the last years leading up to the subsequent elections are also wasted.
On Friday, which is the last day for the submission of memoranda on the bill to the clerk of the Senate, Homa Bay Township MP Opondo Kaluma criticised Cherargei for crafting the bill, warning that the National Assembly would declare it dead on arrival.
“Whose stupid idea is it to change the term of Parliament from 5 to 7 years? Let our Senators ensure the Bill doesn’t reach us in the National Assembly. We will kill it summarily if it comes,” Kaluma said.
