It’s clear now: Handshake a blow to Constitution for personal gain

Nominated Jubilee Party MP Maina Kamanda, his elected Gatanga counterpart Nduati Ngugi and former Mukurweini MP Kabando wa Kabando have let the cat out of the bag.

Nominated MPs have connections and friends in important places. Mr Ngugi is no windbag. And Mr Kabando is a serious and thinking politician.

BOARDROOM POLITICS

And so it can now be told. Baked into the March 9, 2018, handshake is a conspiracy to subvert the Constitution of Kenya by President Kenyatta and his foe-turned-cheer leader Raila Odinga.

In a brazen Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev-style manoeuvre, President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga would headline a presidential ticket for a new alliance for the 2022 General Election. Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga would run respectively as Deputy President and President or Prime Minister and President or President and Deputy or President and Prime Minister.

What Mr Kenyatta's friend, David Murathe, and organised labour boss Francis Atwoli averred last year, Messrs Kamanda, Ngugi and Kabando, last week affirmed. The President’s men envisage him succeeding himself in 2022 when his two-term tenure ends.

That confirms what I have repeatedly said here: the handshake is a private contract on Kenya between Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga.

It is this transactional prospect Mr Atwoli had in mind when he said the next President would be chosen not via the ballot but by the boardroom (of Political Class Incorporated).

And that settles the question of why the war of attrition on Deputy President William Ruto. Its opening salvo was fired by the President, and, unsurprisingly, its foremost and fiercest promoters are Mr Odinga, Mr Atwoli and Mr Murathe.

President Kenyatta has used, abused and dumped Dr Ruto, thereby reneging on the pact the two had in 2012 which would have seen Mr Kenyatta back Dr Ruto for the presidency.

Mr Odinga's betrayal of the National Super Alliance (Nasa) colleagues Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetang'ula and Musalia Mudavadi, and supporters of the opposition, can now be explained.

PRIVATE CONTRACTS

He cut himself a personal deal in which he would share power with the President after the expiry of his second (and final) term.

For this and other perks, such as a continental job, he would withdraw his troops from, and his support for, the post-election resistance to the Kenyatta administration

But there is the little local difficulty of the Constitution. It does not allow for a prime minister's office. Enter the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). It is highly likely to recommend what Mr Odinga tells it.

It is, after all, an issue and instrument of the March 9 conspiracy branded in high-minded aspiration such as giving Kenya a national ethos and giving effect to the lofty ideals of the National Anthem.

And the President and Mr Odinga have argued that the Constitution needs to be changed to abolish the winner-take-all format, expand the Executive to accommodate poll losers and, therefore, rid Kenya of ruinous post-election bitterness.

This I have repeatedly called a false prospectus because Kenya does not experience violence every election cycle. Indeed, the problem of Kenya's elections is vote rigging and not the first-past-the-post or winner-take-all approaches.

What is concerning is that President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga would not only proffer a false prospectus for changing the Constitution, but also seek to change the basic law to contain their political opponents and attain their private contracts.

REAL DANGER

The constitution belongs to the people of Kenya and must be improved for purposes of making their lives better. Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga must not turn the Constitution into a shifting battleground, or an arsenal, for fighting political contests or beating up opponents.

The constitution must not be changed to stop Dr Ruto from becoming President nor to smooth the way for President Kenyatta to succeed himself. And it must not be changed to give effect to a private contract on Kenya between the President and Mr Odinga.

The Constitution should be improved to promote and sustain inclusivity. However, the inclusivity Mr Odinga and President Kenyatta preach is, in fact, exclusivist. The duo seek expansion of the executive, that is, jobs for the boys.

The populace needs inclusivity of opportunities, employment, access to services, transportation, economic empowerment and, a Kenya in which nobody and no region is left behind in terms of development.

But the real danger here is that Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga are toying with a dangerous devil-may-care, damn-the-expenses assault on the constitution for narrow, temporary and individualistic political gains.

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