In order to eliminate term limits from the constitution, President William Ruto has informed UDA legislators that he is not interested in doing so.
The President stated on Wednesday that lawmakers should give laws that will make Kenyans’ lives better first priority.
He continued by saying that right now, working for Kenya’s citizens is his sole priority.
Ruto remarked, “My priority is service to the people. Do not spend your time advocating for selfish and self-serving legislation, like altering the Constitution to remove term limits.
On Wednesday morning, he spoke as he presided over a meeting of the UDA Parliamentary Group at State House.
Salah Yakub, a Fafi MP, made headlines a few days ago when he demanded that the presidential term limit be abolished.
Yakub said that the cap should be based on age rather than length of service.
The UDA lawmaker asserted that some of his colleagues were already working on a constitutional amendment bill to remove the two-term restriction and replace it with a 75-year-old age restriction.
The MP brought up the late President Mwai Kibaki, who resigned after serving two terms of five years despite what the MP claimed was a spectacular record that revived the nation’s economy.
“I believe it was a mistake to let him return home after serving his term. When the Constitution removed him, we restricted his dream, but he performed admirably during his two terms, Yakub said.
I firmly believe that if Kibaki had served more than two terms, we might now be in the same position as Malaysia or Singapore. Therefore, if a person is performing, it is not advisable to remove them due to term constraints, he stated.
However, efforts to amend the Constitution to eliminate presidential term limits were rejected by the party of President William Ruto.
The party and Johnson Muthama, its chairman, declared that they are not involved in the discussions about removing term limits or imposing an age limit.
The statement made by Hon. Yakub has nothing to do with UDA. As a party, we support an open democracy and continue to support the two-term presidential limit. There are no current discussions to do away with this limit, Muthama said.
