President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga have been pushing for constitutional changes through their Building Brides initiative, but will it be an easy journey?
Well, Thirdway Alliance Party leader Dr Ekuru Aukot is pushing for constitutional changes as well. Whilst President Kenytatta and Raila are pushing for more representation, over representation is Dr Aukot’s major concern.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Thursday approved 1.2 of the 1.4 million signatures which Aukot had presented for scrutiny by the commission.
With the law dictating that a person seeking to implement changes in the constitution present one million signatures, Aukot has cruised past the first section of the test.
Consequently, this exposes the nation to a possible referendum, probably next year, which comes as a blow to Uhuru and Raila, who have been pushing for an expanded government.
Aukot, on the other hand, is pushing to have elective seats reduced.
This will, therefore, force the two to go back to the drawing board to consider other ways of realising their push, putting into consideration that it will be impossible to their referendum bid to materialise with Aukot’s also looming.
Political analyst Herman Manyora claims that Deputy President Dr William Ruto stands to benefit from the referendum push by Dr Aukot.
Through his YouTube channel, Manyora explained that Aukot’s plans go through then the country can’t hold another plebiscite until 2022.
In his opinion, this would frustrate plans by the ODM Party Leader to hold a similar exercise to amend the Constitution.
“There are those who believe that if this referendum were to be undertaken, not even go through, just to be undertaken then it would make it nearly impossible for any other group, BBI and the handshake included, to bring another referendum to Kenyans before the next election.
“Therefore Ruto will have scored if the Thirdway Alliance was able to be taken to the people for a vote,” Manyora explained.
He went on to add that skeptics were claiming that the ‘Punguza Mzigo’ initiative would die before it reaches the County Assembly because of the many legal issues surrounding it.
Watch Manyora’s video below:
