Leader of opposition crucial for democracy
Even as proposals provided by the Building Bridges Initiative report continue to elicit diverse shades of opinions, the one area that does not stoke controversy is the suggestion to create the Official Leader of the Opposition’s office.
The position is a vital ingredient in any democracy, especially a fledgling one like Kenya’s.
Indeed, when the country adopted plural politics, the office was a constitutional entity embedded in our statute books.
At various stages between 1992 and 2013, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenneth Matiba, Michael Kijana Wamalwa, retired President Mwai Kibaki and incumbent Head of State Uhuru Kenyatta occupied that portfolio.
That was before the position was scrapped by the current Constitution, which was promulgated in 2010. That move came with disastrous and immense costs.
The outcome has been an impotent Opposition that exists only in name. That development threw to the wind a salient tenet of democracy that demands consistent scrutiny of government operations.
At the moment, the government is not seriously kept in check owing to the fact that the Opposition is as good as non-existent.
The leaders filling the brackets of Kenya’s Opposition have either been run out of town by various factors or have been compromised to play ball along with some State actors, especially on matters touching on impropriety and a host of other vices.
The massive looting of State resources has largely been motivated by lack of a robust Opposition to call the government to account.
Which is why we strongly support sentiments expressed by President Uhuru Kenyatta in his Jamhuri Day address on Saturday, when he made a strong case for the office of Official Leader of the Opposition and an expanded Executive.
Whereas reasons for expanding the Executive have been contested by some, the call for the office of Official Leader of the Opposition has been supported by all.
Developed democracies, mostly from the Commonwealth, including Britain, Canada and Australia, have this model of governance where the Opposition is fully funded by the Exchequer and forms a Shadow Cabinet.
As a result, probity, transparency and democracy thrive there in a more visible and gainful manner than it does in Kenya and other countries in the developing world.
The office of the Leader of the Opposition is a move in the right direction that should be supported and embraced by one and all.
