Busia Senator Article 138 of the Constitution to devolve the presidency by removing the provision inadvertently created in law for the ethnic mobilization of the national electorate at presidential elections.

“There is the urgent need to fully devolve the presidency to the 47 counties, the way the American founding fathers devolved their presidency to all the states that make up the United States of America,” his tweet outlined.

Okiya support to Azimio

The Senator further added that he is not in support of cessation, which was recently proposed by some of the leaders of the Azimio coalition.

During a prayer meeting held in Yatta, hosted by Kalonzo Musyoka, leaders including the former Ndaragua Member of Parliament, Jeremiah Kioni, who claimed, “If they don’t want us, we will go for self determination and split Kenya into two countries.”

Speaking in Yatta, Wider Party Leader, Kalonzo Muysoka’s home, Azimio leader, Raila Odinga gave Ruto six days to drop the Finance Bill failure to which, Odinga said they would write to the United Nations to kickstart the process of cessation.

“If you do not consider the demands we put in our statement and rethink the Finance bill, we shall write to the United Nations to state our need for self determination. The Azimio leaders demanded that ‘the cost of living be lowered, 2022 general election servers opened and disregard of the Finance Bill 2023.’

Okiya Omtata is in agreement with the Azimio team, in regards to the need for self determination, but he proposes that the process be done through devolution of the Presidency as opposed to cessation. “I, Okiya Omtatah Okoiti, am for self determination but not through cessation,” Okiya’s tweet read.

Okiya popular vote proposal

In his tweet, Okiya Omtata proposed presidential election by popular vote geared towards ending tribalism. “It is only by ensuring that a President is elected by a popular vote weighted at the county level and not nationally that the stranglehold on national politics by the big five tribes will be broken,” Okiya wrote in his tweet.

Okiya further went ahead to explain the nitty gritties of the popular vote and how ‘each county will be evaluated based on the number of consituencies it has.’

He tweeted that, ” Each county would be assigned the number of electoral points equivalent to the number of constituencies it has plus one extra point underscoring that all counties are equal. We have 290 constituencies + 47 counties totalling 337 electoral points.

“One would be required to win the popular vote in the number of counties required to garner at least 169 electoral points (being more than half (or 50% + 1) of the points). That way, the big five tribes (Luhyia, Kamba, & Luo (i.e. NASA) on the one hand, & the Kalenjin & Kikuyu.

“(Jubilee) on the other), which dominate national politics in Kenya simply due to their sizeable populations will be cut down to size given that significant members of these five tribes are minorities in other counties. The tribes only become significant when tallied nationally.

“When tallied at the county level, even Lamu County with only two constituencies would have three vital electoral points which, though not enough to produce a president, can prevent one from being a president.

“Hence, Lamu will not be insignificant in the scheme of things, & those seeking the presidency will not flaunt the national sizes of their tribes at Lamu; they will tell Lamu their agenda for the county. And with that, the seeds for issue based national politics would have been planted and even an El Molo with the right ideas will have a realistic opportunity to be elected the President of Kenya,” Okiya Omtata stated in his tweet.