Last-minute changes to Bomas talks’ report legislative proposals set for introduction before the Senate have exposed a silent scheme to jolt the opposition party.
Nation.africa has established that there was a sinister plot by President William Ruto ’s Kenya Kwanza side to make changes to the National Dialogue Committee (Nadco) report aimed at doing away with coalition political parties.
This move could have spelt a death knell to Raila Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party.
The other part of the aborted plan was to change how elections are conducted as well as how results are transmitted.
Trying to pull the rug under Azimio’s feet, the majority side tabled the altered Bills before the Senate, but it took a last-ditch intervention by the minority side to have a debate on the Bills halted, saving the country from another fierce political storm.
The contentious Bills, part of the bipartisan approach co-sponsored by National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah and his minority counterpart Opiyo Wandayi, included the Political Parties (Amendment) Bill, 2024; the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the Elections Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
The first amendment sought to expunge the existence of a coalition political party from the Political Parties (Amendment) Act,2022 by deleting the expression “coalition political party”.
Senate minority leader Stewart Madzayo argued that had the amendment passed, Azimio would have ceased to exist with all the rights and privileges it enjoys in Parliament and also in law.
“Azimio is the only coalition political party in the country and if you do away with the expression, then you are targeting Azimio. If the Bill would have passed as was, Azimio would have been non-existent,” he said.
To block any resurrection of Azimio, the majority side also attempted to seek the deletion of several sections of the Act relating to the formation, registration, certification and governance of a coalition political party.
Further, the new clauses sought to delete the requirement by the Act for a coalition political party to deposit a coalition agreement with the Registrar of Political Parties before or after elections.
The minority leader said the import of the move was to make null and void the Azimio coalition agreement signed by its affiliate parties and deposited with the Registrar before the 2022 elections.
“It is a bit sad for such kinds of mischief in this generation. You do not expect people to do such kinds of things if we are really serious with our democracy,” said the Kilifi senator.
“Where do you think we would have been if the mischievous changes would have succeeded? We would have burned the country. The person who sneaked in the changes should be arrested to face the law,” he added.
On the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the majority side sneaked in a new section after section 38 of the principal Act which provides for the designation of polling stations by the IEBC.
The amendment was to have the electoral commission appoint a place(s) or designate a vehicle(s) or a vessel(s) as a polling station or polling station for each electoral area.
Section 38A(1)(a) states that the Commission shall appoint a place or place as a polling station or polling station for each electoral area.
The changes went further to delete the words “prescribed form” from the clause touching on transmission of results after declaration at the polling station.
Section 39(4)(b) of the amended Act, 2016 states that IEBC should electronically transmit results, for purposes of a presidential election, within two hours of the declaration of the results, from a polling station to the constituency tallying centre, national tallying centre, the candidates or their observers and election observers in the prescribed form.
“When we confronted them (majority side), they agreed there were insertions and deletions contrary to what was in the Nadco report,” said Mr Madzayo.
“What we want is the report to be passed the way it was without sneaking in things. Why do you want to take us back to the streets? The late President Kibaki said that even if you want to rig, kindly use some intelligence,” he added.
Speaker Amason Kingi caused the withdrawal of the Bills in his communication to the House on May 2, for a consensus between the two sides before re-introduction.
The former Kilifi governor said the House Business Committee deliberated on the issue on April 30 before resolving to have corrective measures taken as a matter of urgency in line with what had been agreed upon in the Nadco report.
“This being the case, I direct that further consideration of the three aforementioned Bills be ceased in order to facilitate the corrective measures,” stated Speaker Kingi.
He added: “In this respect, I direct the Office of the Clerk to liaise with the Senate Majority Leader and the Senate Minority Leader to have the said Bills corrected and republished for introduction in the Senate.”
The development came after Senator Madzayo raised a complaint with Speaker Kingi, expressing concern over the content of the three bills while calling for their immediate withdrawal.
In the April 22 letter, the Kilifi senator said that the Bills have clauses that are alien and/or depart significantly from the authentic bills emanating from the Nadco report as adopted by the two Houses of Parliament.
He further called for the cancellation of the call for submission of memoranda on the Bills and expeditious publication of the original Bills as contained in the Nadco report. Mr Madzayo told the Nation yesterday that he had earlier had a discussion with his party leader over the attempted ‘monkey’ business by the majority side.
“There is nothing sinister. We should not read anything sinister from the happenings,” said the Kakamega senator.
