Kenya’s President William Ruto on Sunday, August 27, affirmed his willingness to enhance oversight of the executive through the creation of the office of the leader of the Opposition.
Ruto said he is committed to ensuring that the leader of the Opposition has a fully functional office to enable the opposition to discharge its oversight mandate within the confines of the law and the Constitution.
”If they want the office of the leader of the Opposition, I am ready so that the government of Kenya funds that so that they can issue statements from morning to the evening to criticize the government,
”When they criticize me and I find that I have made some mistakes, I will correct that,” the president said.
On Monday, August 28, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gladys Shollei endorsed President William Ruto’s move to have the official office of the opposition.
Speaking to KTN News, Shollei said the office will tame the reoccurrence of anti-government protests and formally legitimize former Prime Minister Raila Odinga‘s role of keeping the government in check.
“It’s being created because we have found a situation where every time Raila loses the election he goes to the streets, causes mayhem,
“So we are saying let’s make him productive and legitimate as the leader of the opposition, give him something to do that is more useful to Kenyans instead of going to the streets,” Shollei said.
Shollei however said that there was no need to amend the 2010 Constitution through popular initiative to incorporate the office of the opposition.
She instead opined for the amendment of the Political Parties Act as well as the Elections Act to allow the person with the second-largest number of the presidential votes to be nominated to the position of National Assembly making them automatic leaders of opposition.
