Let Kenya Adopt Electoral College System of Voting, Okiya Omtatah Says

Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah is vouching for a constitutional change to enable Kenya to adopt the electoral college voting system like the US does with its presidential elections. 

On Monday, he stated via Twitter that he is in favour of the Azimio la Umoja coalition's desire for self-determination, but not through secession. The vocal rights activist cum politician said he believes the Kenyan Constitution has a flaw in its design, wherein all governing bodies are devolved apart from the presidency.

"Hence, for me, the solution lies in amending Article 138 of the Constitution to devolve the presidency by removing the provision inadvertently created in law for the ethnic mobilisation of the national electorate at presidential elections. There is the urgent need to fully devolve the presidency to the 47 counties, the way the American founding fathers devolved their presidency to all the states that make up the United States of America," Omtatah said.

The legislator avers that tribes are only important when their numbers are aggregated on a national level, and this is the only way to break the power of the five major tribes in national politics. He believes that the big five tribes (Luhyia, Kamba, Luo, Kalenjin, and Kikuyu) currently have an outsized influence over Kenya's political scene because of their large populations. However, he believes this will be diminished if people from those tribes are members of the minority in other counties.

Omtatah explained that to be elected as president, a candidate must successfully receive the majority of votes in several counties that will earn them the required 169 electoral points. He believes that the electoral college formula will move tribal politics aside to make way for issue-based national politics, giving politically marginalized tribes such as the El Molo a chance to be elected president of Kenya.