REPRESENTATION REFORM

Representation Reform Bill
By Nicholas Oyoo
Nairobi, Kenya
June 12, 2014

I blame the current representational system for the woes that this country is currently facing. Look at the way National Assembly membership reasons and you will know that The Kenyans is usually a distant third or fourth in the consideration. I therefore wish to offer my thoughts as a suggestion of a solution going forward. I want to appreciate, that what am proposing will not be seen any where else but i think Kenya needs a different system to deal with a unique set of scenarios that have been obtaining in our nation. Without further ado, here goes.

1)We form an Electoral College; it will have the role of Appointment/Vetting of all Commissioners of all commissions cited in the constitution, and the heads, The Chief Justice and the deputy Chief Justice, The Auditor General, The Controller of Budget, The Political Parties Registrar, Head of Prosecutions, Inspector General etc

2)The Electoral College will elect the Senators, MPs and qualify the presidential candidates for upcoming elections if they receive at least 25% of the Electoral College support or become top three in a second vote (Where non got above 25% in the first vote). They must first submit a written application to the Electoral college with work plans, rationale and ideological grounding of what they intent to do as president in at least 5 Mandatory issues (picked by the Electoral College) and another 5 self selected issues each with at least 5 pages of elaboration, they must talk about their plans to promote national unity, national values, bill of rights and constitutionalism.

3)Election of Senators – A senatorial candidate must come with an application, a CV and 1000 signatures (at least 500 from the county the come from and at least 300 outside that county, in order to be in position to face the Electoral College. All those who have so qualified from all the constituencies will be up with the chance to be senators of the republic. 50-Senatorial seats will be up for grabs and after public vetting by a sub-committee. The roles of senators will be Oversight and Legislation on County Governments. Candidates for the senate present their senatorial leadership plans in writing and why they are the best to be considered for the role and on the strength of that a shortlist of 300 people, finally the three hundred will each get 15 minutes with the Electoral College select team with the rest of the college watching. A vote will be done and each Electoral College member must select 50 people from the list (they are allowed to mark out their preferences as they listen to the speak as long as they can guarantee no one will see who they are making) . A second vote will be called for the balance of votes where there is less that 50 people voted for until the 50 are found.

4)Election of National Assembly Members – A NA candidate must come with an application, a CV and 300 signatures at least (100) from the constituency the come from and at least 100 outside that county, to earn the right to face the Electoral College. All those who have so qualified from all the constituencies will be up with the chance to be senators of the republic. 150-National assembly seats will be up for grabs and after public vetting by a sub-committee. The roles of senators will be Oversight and Legislation on County Governments and the roles of MPs will be Oversight and Legislation on national issue. Candidates for the senate present their National Assembly leadership plans in writing and why they are the best to be considered for the role and on the strength of that a shortlist of 1000 people, finally the 300 will each get 15 minutes with the Electoral College select team with the rest of the college watching. A vote will be done and each Electoral College member must select 150 people from the list. A second vote will be called for the balance of votes where there is less that 150 people voted for until the 150 are found.

5)County Electoral Colleges will also use the same criteria to selected MCAs and Independent office holders. Each county will have 25 MCAs. They have to have at least 100 signatures with at least 50 from their wards and at least 20 outside their wards.

Selection of the Electoral Colleges
Applications and CVs for serving in the Electoral Colleges will be received at the Public Service Commission and the commission will carry out due diligence to confirm that the details presented are true and once satisfied it will submit the names, coded in numerical digits to the electoral commission to conduct a draw to pick 3 names from each ward in the country. A Woman, A Man and a third representing youth, people with disabilities, Minorities etc. they will serve for 2 years and can only be considered after 3 such electoral colleges have served for a second stint.

Advantages:
 A professional law making set of units free from tribal capture, political party capture, political big personality capture, corruption (money capture)
 More focused legislative leadership more time for legislation and parliamentary business other CDF issues
 Reduced Corruption as the NAs and Senators will not have used money to get elected
 Government seriousness and with well thought through bills will get it sailing in Parliaments
 Involvement of ordinary wananchi (like with a jury) will lead to more awareness by the public
 Redistribution of wealth – with 9,000 people serving in the various Electoral Colleges, with a quick turnover will mean more chances for people to get wealth
 People centered leadership will have more opportunity to be perpetuated
 Issues based elections
 Better training ground for higher level leadership with depth in understanding of issues
 Clarity in job description for parliamentary personnel
 Kenyans leadership in provision of answers for indigenous solution as opposed to copy pasted systems (Kenyaocracy is what we may call it)
 Cutting the umbilical cord between parliament and executive forcing the executive to present water tight proposal to parliament which will debate them objectively and must pass those that are sensible because of people pressure.
You will not see the kinds of headlines again:-

Raila tells Luo MPs Over Polls - http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-152352/raila-tells-luo-mps-over-polls
Uhuru Meet Meru Leaders Over Waiguru - http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-170798/uhuru-meet-meru-leaders-over-waiguru