UNDERSTANDING BBI - DEMISTIFYING FACTS FROM LIES
REPRESENTATION
The Bill seeks to create a level playing field in the Senate and the National Assembly by doing away with nominations. Everyone will have to go through the ballot.
In the Senate, it amends Article 98 to increase the number of senators from 47 with one representation from each County to 94 Senators.
Each County will be represented by two Senators, one woman and one man. Also regarding the Senate, in terms of its oversight role, the bill seeks to amend Article 96 where it expands the Senate’s mandate.
The house (Senate) will not just oversight revenue allocated by the National Government to the Counties, but it will also oversight the revenue raised and received by the county governments and their expenditure.
With the removal of the position of Woman Representative Seats in the National Assembly (NA), political parties will be required to meet the two-thirds gender rule while submitting their lists to the IEBC.
The BBI document amends Article 90 with the special seats in both NA and County Assemblies thus providing that the seats will be allotted on the basis of the total votes received by the political party as opposed to the current practice where such allocation is based on seats won by a political party.
Therefore, nomination slots in the County Assembly shall be reserved on the basis of gender parity and will only be given to people who have vied, but lost but more so the second person from either of the gender of different from the winner will carry the nomination.
A newly created article 151A gives birth to three positions namely, The Prime Minister (PM) and two Deputy Prime Ministers (DPM). The PM will be nominated by the President from among the elected Members of Parliament, and from the party with the majority of members in the National Assembly.
The PM functions shall be to coordinate and supervise government functions. He or she shall only assume office after nomination has been confirmed by NA, supported by majority vote of the Members.
The PM shall as well be deputised by the two DPMs who shall also be appointed by the President from among the Cabinet Ministers. The number of Cabinet Ministers will remain 22 (Including the two DPMs).
Article 154 shall be amended to remove the approval of the national Assembly in the appointment of the Secretary to the cabinet. Also, by amending Article 155, the President shall be required to appoint Principal Secretaries from a list recommended by the Public Service Commission (PSC). The appointees will no longer require the approval by the National Assembly.
New article 107A proposes the creation of the position of Leader of Official Opposition (LOO) to be the person who received the second greatest number of votes in a Presidential election and whose political party or coalition has at least 25% of all MPs.
It denotes that the LOO and the PM shall not be members of the same party.
The repealing of Article 108 creates the order of precedent in the National assembly as follows: -
The Speaker of the National Assembly
The Prime Minister; and
The Leader of Official Opposition
New article 108A constitutionalizes the party leadership structure in the Senate as follows:-
The Speaker of the Senate;
The Leader of Majority party; and
The Leaders of Minority Party.
Therefore, the National Assembly shall have 360 elected MPs from single-member constituencies; 4 PWD representatives- two men and two women; two youths from both gender; number of special seats members necessary to ensure the two-thirds principle is adhered to; the Speaker, Attorney General and Cabinet Ministers who are not elected MPs all as ex-officious; and the Leader of Official Opposition.
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