Laikipia Senator John Kinyua has suggested the abolishment of five-term limits for both the presidential and gubernatorial positions.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, August 15, during the ongoing Devolution Conference 2023 happening in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, the lawmaker argued that annulling term limits would empower leaders to effectively fulfill their commitments to Kenyans.
“In terms of tangible performance or tangible development from a president and governor, it is a ten-year term,” the Laikipia Senator remarked.
Kinyua was elected in the August 2022 General Election under the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), a party that is heavily associated with President William Ruto.
Kenya’s term limit was introduced before the 1992 elections and retained in the country’s 2010 constitution.
A president is eligible for two consecutive terms of five years each, starting from the date the president is sworn in. The first president for whom the term limits applied was the late President Daniel Toritich Arap Moi in 2002.
In 2022, President William Ruto shut down attempts by a section of lawmakers to annul a Constitutional limit of two five-year presidential terms that would have opened the way for him to lead the nation for 20 years.
Ruto who spoke at the State House in Nairobi during a parliamentary group meeting of the UDA, urged lawmakers to focus on delivering and coming up with bills that would improve lives.
“Do not spend your time pushing for selfish and self-serving legislation, like changing the Constitution to remove term limits. My focus is service to the people,” Ruto told legislators from the ruling party which holds a majority in the National Assembly.
The Kenyan Constitution 2010 provides complex mechanisms for amending certain fundamental provisions, including the term limit for presidents. One of the requirements is that the proposal would have to be approved by Kenyans in a referendum.
