Thirdway Alliance party has drafted radical proposals to amend the Constitution that will be presented to the IEBC on Thursday in what may send the country to an early referendum.
The party proposes to alter at least nine of the 18 chapters in the Constitution, with far-reaching amendments on chapter eight, the legislature.
If IEBC gives the nod to the one million signatures that would be presented by the Ekuro Aukot led-party, Kenya would head to the ballot even as other political players present their views to the Building Bridges Initiative.
Other chapters that the Aukot team proposes to amend include devolution, the executive, public finance, bill of rights, leadership and integrity, representation of the people as well as commissions and independent offices.
According to the proposals, the party wants 47 counties to be used as a single constituency for purposes of parliamentary election to both the Senate and National Assembly.
This means that the current 290 constituencies would be abolished.
Under the new proposal, each of the 47 constituencies will elect one man and one woman to the National Assembly bringing the total to 94 MPs.
This abolishes the women representative position.
However, there would be six nominated MPs –– three men and three women –– from special interest groups.
Each county would still elect a senator, according to the recommendation.
This proposition would see the current number of MPs slashed by nearly a third from 416 to 147.
It would also sort out the two-thirds gender principle that the country has been grappling with over the past ten years.
The amendments also seek to elevate Senate to be an Upper House with veto powers on the National Assembly.
In what will be music to the ears of governors, the party also proposes to increase county revenue share allocation to, at least, 35 per cent from the current 15 per cent.
In a similar proposal as Raila Odinga’s ODM Party, Aukot is also pushing for a one 7-year term presidency to end what he calls a “do or die culture of re-election”.
Thirdway argues that re-elections in Kenya are fraught with theft of public money and too much focus on re-election and appeasing of friends at the expense of service delivery.
Aukot also wants the position of deputy governor abolished and governors allowed to appoint one of their executive officers as their principal assistants.
He argues that all deputy governors are redundant without any clear roles in the county.
The party also wants an all constitutional commission to comprise of not more than five part-time members who will be sitting on a necessity basis and shall only be paid a sitting allowance.
Kenya currently has 12 commissions, with its members being among the best remunerated.
These include among others IEBC, EACC, JSC and TSC, SRC, NLC.
Aukot also proposes that every Kenyan who has attained the age of 18 and who has acquired a national Identity card should be deemed to be a fully registered voter.
“All we need to do is to ensure that we have a trusted register of Kenyan adults duly entered into a national register that IEBC can sync with its systems for purpose of elections,” Thirdway says, adding that registration of voters gobbles billions every election cycle.
In a radical proposition to make corruption dire, Aukot wants a life sentence imposed for culprits convicted of corruption and theft of public funds.
No presidential pardon and amnesty will be applicable in these cases.
He also proposes that corruption and theft of public resources cases to be tried within 30 days and all appeals to be exhaustively concluded within 15 days.
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