KENYA
How Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga wants to change the system
Nairobi — Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has vowed to push for constitutional reforms to reintroduce the role of prime minister and further decentralise power, steps, he said, that would help resolve divisions exacerbated by the East African nation’s disputed elections. "The presidential system as currently exercised in Kenya is still a strong tool for exclusion," Odinga, who in 2017 failed in his fourth bid for the presidency, wrote in an opinion piece in the local Sunday Nation newspaper. An "obvious alternative" was for separate heads of state and government, with a president "typically elected indirectly" and a prime minister who leads the majority party or coalition in parliament, he said. Kenya’s presidential system, under which the winner takes all, has been blamed for political tensions and post-election violence. Odinga held the post of premier from 2008 to 2013, as part of a deal to end two months of ethnic conflict after a disputed December 2007 vote that left more...
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