Lawyer Willis Otieno is proposing a motion that seeks to ensure the next general election is held in August 2026 and not August 2027 as it is expected.
According to him, the country has not been adhering fully to the constitution by conducting elections after every 5 years.
Reasons that have compelled him to push for the motion
1.Duty to defend The Constitution
Otieno says that having elections after 5 years is only intended to to accommodate political interests. This is because the constitution states presidential elections and any other of the elective positions should be held in the fifth year of a president’s term and not after the fifth year as it has been witnessed in the past elections.
“The country needs to wake up from national inertia and to give up the hangups of the old constitution which provided a term limit of 5 years. Those provisions of the old constitution were dropped in 2010,” he explained.
He cited the case of Former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s first term where elections were held in 2017 and not 2018 after his 5 year term.
“That was the true interpretation and application of the constitution,” he said, adding that the president is not entitled to 5 years.
Due to that, he wants Kenyans to apply the constitution provisions with utmost fidelity.
2. Election body is financed yearly
Otieno said that it wouldn’t be difficult to achieve elections within the 5 years because IEBC is financed every year.
“The budget allocations of the elections are not out of the ordinary, they are the usual financial commitments that the people of Kenya make whenever they are supposed to donate their sovereign power to their democratically elected representatives,” he said.
3. Kenya adopted the American model
Otieno noted that Kenya’s constitution adopted the American model and therefore the same should apply when it comes to elections.
In America, elections are done after 4 years .
“The structure of our constitution adopted the American model that is why you have a Supreme Court, bicameral parliament, a pure presidential system. This model was moving away from the west minister model” he said.
“For certainty the Constitution of Kenya adopted that the elections are held on the second August in the fifth year, inside the fifth year so you are guaranteed a four year term,” he insisted.
