Many people have never realized what is contained in the handshake team and what the building bridges initiatives was established for.
The handshake was more than just Hon Raila and the President Uhuru Kenyatta meeting and deciding to resolve their political differences.
Each party involved tabled their demands for the new Kenya.
The ODM party led by Hon Raila Odinga want the country to adopt the parliamentary system. This means that the normal mwananchi would not have the sovereign power to elect the President. But how many will agree with this suggestion?
According to ODM, MPs will have the powers to elect the President who will then appoint the Prime Minister.
“This will remove focus on the presidency that has become the trophy of ethnic competition,” the internal document reads.
According to the proposal, the 14 regional blocs, each made of several counties, will elect a Regional Premier and deputy.
In April, Ruto had trashed the proposal backed by many governors who believe the changes would be a major assault on their current powers.
“Rearranging devolution cannot be by creating another layer. It should be by taking the counties to the wards. We cannot take devolution upwards. [It should be taken] downwards. That is where devolution has to go and we don’t have to change the Constitution for that,” Ruto said
The proposal also calls for regional assemblies, comprised of all members of county assemblies in each region.
The devolved governments would be allocated 45 per cent of national revenue, of which 13.5 per cent would go to regional governments and 26.5 per cent to counties.
The ODM proposal calls for the Senate having 29 members, including the speaker; the National Assembly would have 180 legislators.
In another far-reaching suggestion, Raila’s party wants to get rid of the EACC. The agency has been seen as moribund in the anti-graft war, despite a massive budgetary allocation. The DCI appears to be the main driver of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s corruption purge.
ODM is pushing for decentralization of the IEBC that would involve creating national and regional commissions to oversee the electoral process.
The party also wants commissioners appointed on a part-time basis by political parties with enhanced public participation to build credibility.
ODM also wants stakeholder input into recruitment of senior staff at national and regional levels, rekindling its protracted fight to have ex-CEO Ezra Chiloba axed from the IEBC.
The list of demand continues as the party silently push for a referendum. Most leaders have different ideas on their push for referendum each presenting different demands. But the issue to scrap off the powers from the citizens in electing the President will be main focus that may qualify or disqualify their demands.
Do you support their idea of the ideal system of governance?