PLO Lumumba shares 5 proposals in push to change constitution

PLO Lumumba, a prominent attorney and pan-Africanist, has stated plans to begin the process of revising the Constitution.
The professor addressed the media on Sunday, the 13th anniversary of the 2010 Constitution’s promulgation. He brought up important points about the composition of the Executive, Devolution, and independent Constitutional Commissions.
He urgued that the Executive created several posts that weren’t mentioned in the Constitution, so the laws needed to be changed to either recognize or invalidate them.
“We are saying that on a day to be announced, we shall commence the process of collection of signatures, which are to be a minimum of 1 million, in order to ignite the process of a popular initiative,” PLO, a former Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission director stated.
“In that endeavor, We shall do our very best. We will have people who will support us and we will have people who will support us.”
Representation
While the Kenyan Constitution aimed to ensure that the two-thirds norm was followed by all public institutions, the lawyer said that some other marginal communities were not covered by the provision.
“We also believe that our representation should be examined. For the last ten years, we have been grappling with the issue of representation of women, but that is not the only area that we ought to focus on,” PLO stated.
“Do the Ogiek feel that they are part of Kenya? Do the Daasanach feel that they are part of Kenya? We believe that is the time to relook at the question of representation.”
The state has worked for the past thirteen years to uphold the gender rule. Seven women and fifteen men serve as Cabinet Secretaries. In spite of vowing to have a third of his government made up of women, the Head of State appointed 51 principal secretaries, only 12 of them are female.
President William Ruto justified the choice in January, pointing out that other factors, including as age and regional balance, limited his ability to make some choices.
Government organization
Lumumba questioned the structure of the existing government while holding the conference alongside Isaac Kalua, the leader of the Green Thinking Action Party (GTAP), and other activists.
He stated that several posts had been introduced, such as the Chief Cabinet Secretary (CAS), which has faced numerous legal challenges, and the Prime Cabinet Secretary (PCS), which is currently held by Musalia Mudavadi. The Constitution does not explicitly support either position.
“There are those who believe we are over-represented and there are those who believe that we are under-represented… There are those who believe that the architecture of our executive arm of government ought to be examined,” he revealed.
“We have seen the creation of an office called PCS. It is not directly mentioned in the Constitution. We have seen the creation of CAS and we are saying the time is now to examine our executive and satisfy ourselves that it is something that can take us forward.”
The implementation of policies, programs, and projects of the National Government was the responsibility of the PCS position, according to a circular from the State House. One of the key topics of discussion in the cross-party negotiations between Ruto and Raila Odinga, the head of the opposition, is the constitutionalization of the office of Prime Cabinet Secretary.
The High Court also declared in July that the position of CAS was unconstitutional, which resulted in the loss of employment for 50 appointments.
Devolution
The team also argued for reconsidering the Devolution provision of the 2010 Constitution, which permits county governments to function independently within their counties.
Although the process produced considerable advancements, such as bringing services closer to citizens, Lumumba felt that other components jeopardized its success.
“Devolution has done many beautiful things but there is sense in which certain things that have also happened which undermined the devolution,” he stated.
For instance, the Council of Governors and its national counterpart have recently been at odds over both the quantity and the timely remittance of payments. Governors claimed that the delay in service delivery had an impact.
Commissions for the Constitution
Lumumba made a hint that the nation had also allowed the creation of an excessive number of constitutional commissions, noting that this action resulted in the waste of taxpayer money while funding the committees.
He stated that it was now necessary to assess several commissions that served similar functions.
“We have offices such as the split in the offices of the Auditor General and split in the office of the Budget Controller. We moved away from a single office. Are we the rich or are we the poorer?” He questioned.
Community EAC
The team further urged the nation to reconsider its ties to both the African continent and the East African Community.
Lumumba suggested that it was time to abolish Kenya’s borders, allow for the free movement of labor, and reevaluate the need for visas.
The action is anticipated to be in line with the Africa Agenda 2063 for seamless trade and the elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers as well as the pan-African Africa Continental Free Trade Area.
“Is it not the proper time that our own Constitution should also, in a very specific manner, be aligned to what is happening in East Africa and in the Continent of Africa,” he stated.
As of July 2023, Kenyans could access forty four countries worldwide visa-free, including Burundi, Botswana, Ethiopia, Malawi and Mauritius, among others.