Editor's Review

He accused the president of planning to change the constitution even before he settles in office.

Law Society of Kenya President Eric Theuri has now said that they will oppose plans by President William Ruto to make any constitutional amendments.

In a tweet on Saturday, Theuri said they will not allow BBI to happen to say they will oppose such plans.

He accused the president of planning to change the constitution even before he settles in office.

"The attempt to reintroduce BBI 2 by President Ruto should be resisted and condemned by ALL Kenyans. The President is on a dazzling race to mutilate the Constitution even before the ink dries on the oath he took to defend it," Theuri said.

The remarks by Theuri come even as there are plans to create an office of the leader of the opposition.

LSK President Eric Theuri. IMAGE/ FILE

President William Ruto wrote to the Speakers of the National Assembly and the Senate communicating the plans.

Ruto is said to have whipped his troops during last week’s Kenya Kwanza parliamentary group retreat to draft a constitutional amendment bill to anchor the positions in the country’s supreme law.

Currently, losers of presidential elections do not hold any public office, a situation that many believe has disenfranchised the opposition and their supporters.

The new Bill, sponsored by Bumula MP Wanami Wamboka (DAP-K), has already been approved by the National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, paving the way for its publication and introduction in the House for first reading.

MPs are currently on a two-month recess, implying that the Bill will be introduced for processing when the House resumes February next year unless a special sitting is convened.“

"The candidate from the political party that receives the second greatest number of votes in a presidential election shall occupy the office of the official opposition leader,” the Bill states.

The offices, which shall be a body corporate, will have a secretariat, headed by the secretary to the office or chief executive officer to enable the office holders effectively discharge their duties of putting the government in check

.“The office shall through the structures of the political party that receives the second greatest number of votes in a presidential election promote active participation by individual citizens in political life,” the Bill states.

Wamboka said the opposition leaders derive their mandate directly from the people and thus should be funded by the taxpayers to discharge the duties of the office.

“The person should therefore be accommodated in the political process to provide [and] promote active participation by individual citizens in political life including organising civic education in democracy and other electoral processes,” it states.

The leaders will also be tasked with influencing the shaping of public opinion on matters of good governance, democracy and electoral processes.