Mudavadi warns against executive PM

Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi has warned that the creation of an executive prime minister serving under an elected President will create two centres of power that will be difficult to manage.

Mr Mudavadi said the position should be made non-executive, with the premier’s roles clearly defined.

“We are strictly opposed to any attempt to create multiple, conflicting or ambiguous centres of State authority. The Head of State must also be the head of government and Commander-in-Chief of the defence forces. This authority must not be shared or open to multiple interpretations,” Mr Mudavadi told the BBI steering committee in its third day of validation hearings at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.

The prime minister, Mr Mudavadi proposed, should be appointed by the President from the President’s party subject to approval by Parliament.

“If Kenya were to create the office of the prime minister, it should be in a structure that will not have any filibustering lest you create a bureaucracy that will not function,” he said.

The former deputy premier gave the example of prime minister’s post that was not well defined in the Grand Coalition government, where Prime Minister Raila Odinga almost always clashed with Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka over his roles, with President Mwai Kibaki’s assumption of complete presidential powers not helping matters.

In his presentation, Mr Mudavadi called for the creation of the office of the leader of the opposition, funded by the Exchequer and with a shadow Cabinet. But for the BBI to succeed, it should be devoid of personality politics, he said.

Mr Mudavadi told the Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji-led committee that comments by ODM leader Odinga suggesting a March deadline for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) rallies and consultations were “reckless and dangerous”.

“We take exception to recurrent remarks by sections of the political class that certain paths and outcomes will come out of the BBI within certain timelines, whether Kenyans like it that way or not. Such remarks are reckless and should be discouraged,” the ANC leader said.

Mr Odinga, whose handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta prompted the BBI process, was quoted over the weekend saying that the rallies and the process should end by next month to allow preparation for a referendum.

Others who appeared before the committee were the Kenya University Students Organisation and the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis.

Today will be the turn of Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, Confederation of Trade Unions boss Francis Atwoli and the Deputy Governors’ Forum.