What National Super Alliance MPs are purporting to do by signing an affidavit is laughable. Nowhere does the Kenyan Constitution provide that somebody can be sworn in as the Head of State of this country on the basis of affidavits from Members of Parliament.
The only job description provided for MPs is to legislate in Parliament and to oversight Government. That mandate of theirs purporting to act as citizens who elect a president does not exist.
Though the issues NASA is raising are valid, they cannot be wished away. They represent a certain constituency of this nation.
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I think the President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto have a duty to listen to the grievances raised by NASA. But this cannot be pushed through threats the way NASA is threatening to swear-in their leader Raila Odinga on January 30 if there is no dialogue.
In my own view, I think Raila has been getting wrong legal advice on this issue of swearing-in. He needs to get proper sound advice that on the question of who is the Head of State of this country is resolved until August 9, 2022, or unless a vacancy in the President arises due to death or any other issue.
For now, I don't think that affidavit has any legal basis to be considered as a legal document.
Those MPs appending their signatures on the affidavit are just conducting an academic exercise. The election of a President in this country is directly done by voters.
The country’s law states that whoever gets the majority of votes cast in a General Election and whoever garners 25 per cent of votes in at least 24 counties becomes the President of the Republic. None of those parameters is envisaged when the NASA MPs are signing that affidavit.
NASA’s intension of swearing-in Raila to be the Head of State is just a waste of time. It is not known by the Constitution, which provides how the Head of State of a country called Kenya can be sworn in.
The Head of State must be sworn in by the Registrar of the Supreme Court in the presence of the Chief Justice.
If Raila wants to be a new President, he must be handed over power by the outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta and he must be given the instruments of power. And this will not happen.
The writer is a political analyst and a lawyer