Lawyer PLO Lumumba has come forward publicly to speak against Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s BBI(Building Bridges Initiative).
Lumumba becomes the first prominent person in the country to speak against the proposed referendum.
PLO Lumumba doesn’t agree about the reintroduction of the position of Prime Minister that is being advocated by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga.
Speaking at the 10th anniversary of the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, Lumumba stressed that introducing Prime Minister’s post won’t help solve the problems that are usually rampant in the election period.
“I do not think having a Prime Minister will solve our problem.” PLO Lumumba said. “I think our problem lies in our political culture, not the presidential system or parliamentary system. Our problem is ethnicisation of our politics,”
Similar sentiments were echoed by Kericho Senator, Aaron Cheruiyot, who was of the opinion that the expansion of the Executive was constitutionalizing tribalism.
“This clamor is always about the five top communities. What happens to the others?” he stated.
On the other hand, National Assembly Speaker, Justin Muturi, supported the idea of bringing back the PM’s position.
Lumumba wants the Executive to be expanded to help ease the tension witnessed during elections.
“I think because of the kind of tension a presidential election tends to arouse in the country, let’s tinker with it; some hybrid-President, Prime Minister.”
“I think it would reduce the tension that we see during election time,” he stated.
