Ford Asili has warned against any attempt to extend dates for next year’s election, terming it unconstitutional.
In a statement, Ford Asili secretary general Njeru Kathangu said any move to postpone the election might slide the country into anarchy.
He called on leaders to stick to the elections calendar as issued by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
“As part of the vanguard of multiparty politics in our motherland, our party wishes to reiterate our position. We will not let this country slide into another dictatorship, impoverishment and the sorry state of hopelessness that we always fought against. Not again,” Kathangu said.
He was reacting to reports of plots to have the 2022 election postponed by a year.
National Assembly Committee of Implementation of the Constitution chairman Jeremiah Kioni and former nominated senator Paul Njoroge have presented proposals to put off the polls.
According to Kathangu, those pushing for election in 2023 have no respect for the Constitution and are hell-bent on pushing the country to the brink.
In a letter to the IEBC boss Wafula Chebukati and Attorney General Kihara Kariuki, Njoroge says having the election on August 9, 2022, will unconstitutionally reduce President Uhuru Kenyatta’s five-year term by four months.
Citing Article 142 of the Constitution, Njoroge argues the five-year presidential term began on the day he was sworn in.
Uhuru was sworn in on November 28, 2017, following protracted electioneering that saw his August 2017 victory nullified and a fresh presidential ballot held.
“It, therefore, goes without saying that the term of the office of the President shall expire on November 27, 2022,” Njoroge says.
“Thus, if the election is to be conducted on August 9, 2022, as you have indicated, it means the current President shall have been denied over four months of his term, which is unconstitutional.
Kioni on the other hand is leading a group of legislators supportive of the President and are preparing to petition the High Court to postpone the election, to give the IEBC adequate time to conduct boundary delimitation.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
