It has been interesting to observe the changing political language on the BBI report particularly on the roles of President and Prime Minister but first, some context.
In 2004 Bomas constitutional conference, the role of the Prime Minister vis-a-vis that of the President was one of the deal-breakers of that constitutional search.
Towards the last day of the constitutional conference, over 415 notices of motion were filed by those who sought to make amendments on the draft report.
Goerge Omari Nyamweya (Delegate No. 615), representing the Democratic Party (President Mwai Kibaki’s party) filed several amendments whose import was to water down the roles assigned to the Prime Minister.
The political consensus had been that the executive authority of the country to rest on the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The DP delegation had strenuously opposed this arrangement, and wanted the totality of executive authority to rest squarely on the president.
A splinter group within the government of Mwai Kibaki, then made almost entirely of members of the LDP Party then led by Raila Odinga, preferred a situation where the President was the head of state while the Prime Minister was the head of government.
While the DP/NAK group saw this arrangement as creating what became known as “two centers of power”, the LDP group argued that the arrangement was one more chip off the monster called “imperial presidency”.
You must not forget that the 2002 election and support for Kibaki by the LDP had been premised on Kibaki appointing Raila Odinga as Prime Minister, with the powers to run government. This “MoU” became a sticking issue in the early days of NARC government because when Kibaki constituted his first cabinet, he dealt LDP a shorthand.
The demands by the opposition, and their description of the role of the prime minister, gave birth to what was now widely, and, derisively, referred to as “executive prime minister”.
Kibaki lost that referendum. The opposition, buoyed by the victory against Kibaki, formed a party called ODM and spoilt for a fight. The election ended in chaos.
The formation of the Grand Coalition government revived the structure of government that had seen the talks collapse at Bomas. The Prime Minister returned.
There has been two more elections after 2007 and the post of the Prime Minister which has been contentious since 2003 is now an eventuality.
In the BBI, while the President retains the dual headship of state and government, the Prime Minister now has fairly enhanced powers.
The BBI Prime Minister, though still lower in stature as was contained in the aspirations of the LDP delegation at Bomas, is still way above what the DP/NAK hardliners offered as their “irreducible minimum”.
One more irony is that karma is a bitch. The current descendants of DP/NAK may just be the first to taste the “empty” powers of the Prime Minister, while their former LDP antagonists ascend to the presidency, in an arrangement endorsed by both of them!
