By The Weekly Vision
A few hours after the High Court of Kenya dismissed the appointment of 50 Chief Administrative Secretaries (CAS) by President William Ruto, details emerged about how the top State House operatives have now retreated and working on their plan B. Sources have told The Weekly Vision how the presidents’ top strategists are working on a new plan to counter the ruling which has left 50 allies of the president in the political cold.
The source adds that several proposals have been put on the table by the strategists for the president to look at, the first option is to file an appeal at the Court of Appeal. The second option sources divulged is to work on a constitutional amendment to entrench the CAS position in the constitution. Here they have two options, one, is to do it through parliament and two through popular initiative through signatures of one million registered voters. However, the referendum to amend the constitution could hit a dead end as the Independent and Electoral Boundaries Commission lacks the requisite quorum to conduct any election or referendum.
If they go the referendum way, then President Ruto must ensure the recruitment of IEBC commissioners and chairman is expedited to give it the mandate to conduct elections or even referendum. It is said, President Ruto believes that he has the numbers to carry the day if a constitutional amendment through a popular initiative goes ahead. However, some of his allies are said to have warned against going the referendum way as they claim it will allow Azimio to campaign against the government.
If the team drops the popular initiative method, the team would then use parliament to amend the constitution. For a parliamentary system in a constitutional amendment, it requires two-thirds of the MPs to vote in support of the amendment. The big question, however, is whether the President will be able to marshal the two-thirds in both houses (National Assembly and Senate). Analysts say the rate at which President Ruto is “buying” opposition MPs; he is likely to get more MPs to cross over from the opposition to the government side.
Already, more MPs from Western and Nyanza have shown a willingness to work with Ruto’s administration. The President’s next target according to his strategists is the Coast and Ukambani regions. The plan is to lure more MPs from the regions to join the Kenya Kwanza bandwagon to raise the required threshold. The last option for Ruto which could as well meet legal hurdles is renaming, restructuring and reassigning duties from CAS to another outfit.
The constitution according to Ruto strategists allows him to create positions and to appoint officers to hold such positions. There is a claim that the president can, through executive orders, create new positions similar to that of CAS. What remains to be seen is whether he will pursue the Court of Appeal way or the constitutional amendment path.
