Omtatah's Plan For Ruto To Be President For 3 Years
Omtatah on his part proposed that the current term limit should be reduced to three years to allow voters to hold presidents accountable at the conclusion of their term.
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Busia senator, Okiya Omtatah, has suggested that Kenyan presidents should hold office for a term of three years down from the current five years.
Speaking in a Citizen TV interview on Tuesday, November 8, Omtatah took an issue with Fafi MP, Salah Yakub's, proposal to increase President William Ruto's current term limit to 20 years.
Omtatah on his part proposed that the current term limit should be reduced to three years to allow voters to hold presidents accountable at the conclusion of their term.
“If we create a situation whereby the topmost office is going to be occupied for more than ten years it will be bad.
"In fact, some of us think that we should reduce the term limit to two terms of three or four years so that if someone is making mistakes we can get rid of them much earlier and get someone else to do better,” said Omtatah.
He condemned the wild idea of scrapping the presidential term limit and replacing it with a cap of age 75 years, adding that he was ready to oppose it by all means necessary.
“Some of us are ready to fight it. I don’t know if we shall succeed, but there will be a vicious fight.
"The integrity and hygiene of our politics is in changing politicians the way we change diapers on a baby. So we need to keep changing our politicians so that we can achieve the cream at the top,” said Omtatah.
He termed the idea as a distraction to Kenyans, blocking them from raising issues regarding real problems such as the cost of living in the country.
“There are many things that have been happening, there has been an attempt to talk about SGR and other things in the air that are disturbing Kenyans, including the cost of living, so you bring up these issues to distract Kenyans,” added the outspoken activist.
Yakub defended his stance by claiming that Heads of States with great track records in terms of development should not be allowed to rule for only two terms due to the economic impact they can have on Kenya.
“We want to tell Kenyans that the limit on two terms should be relooked. We want it to be changed to an age limit where when one gets to 75 years then he or she cannot contest”.
“We will come up with an amendment Bill to try to change this because we want the requirement to be on age limit and not terms. If a president is doing a good job, then he or she should not be limited by the terms,” he said during a relief food distribution drive in Garissa County over the previous weekend.
On Tuesday, he gave an example of Kenya's third president, the late Mwai Kibaki, who ran the course of his two terms even though he achieved more economically in his 10-year reign than any other president in the country.
Ruto's allies and the UDA party had distanced themselves from the ambitious plan, noting that it was the sole idea of the legislator, which generated heated discussions across the country.
The two-term limit was introduced ahead of the 1992 elections following the repeal of section 2A of the old constitution and was kept in the 2010 Constitution.
President William Ruto with the late Kenya's second president, Daniel arap Moi during a past function. /FILE
