Wednesday, October 13, 2021 –Presidents will now be able to sack their stubborn deputies if the 2021 Bill tabled in Parliament sails through.
The head of State will have all sweeping powers to do away with his assistant just incase he or she feels not comfortable working with him due to insubordination.
This new Bill is coming at the time President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto are having a very difficult time working together. The duo who once enjoyed a warm bro-mance can nolonger discuss any issue together due to their irreconcilable differences.
The Bill according to our sources from Parliament has already been tabled by the Parliamentary Constitution, Implementation and Oversight Committee CIOC and is pushing to equip the president with veto powers to hire and fire the deputy.
But even as this is being prepared, the sacking of the deputy must be supported by one-third of both the National Assembly and the Senate. This now deviates from the normal two-thirds as it has been.
“Article 150(1) is amended by inserting a new paragraph that gives the president powers to sack with at least one-third of all the members of the National Assembly and at least one-third of all members of the senate,” the Bill reads in part.
Powers of sacking deputies were scrapped through the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution; a time before, the head of State would sack his deputy at will- this makes the reason why the former President Daniel Arap Moi had more than one VP.
The Bill will also introduce more positions like the deputy presidents, a prime minister with two deputies among other positions.
Political parties’ presidential candidates will nominate persons they think can take over the deputy slots. This is not far from what the aborted Building Bridges Initiative BBI had in content.
This, however, will be another stage where DP Ruto’s allies in Parliament will have to clash with those allied to Uhuru and Raila.
