Livondo wants court to bar DP from presidential race
Businessman Stanley Livondo yesterday filed a petition in court seeking to block a deputy president from vying for the presidency in subsequent general elections.
He argues that the DP serves two terms jointly with the president, thus cannot stand for nomination in a suit whose ruling could be significant to DP William Ruto’s 2022 presidential ambitions.
Livondo wants other members of the Executive—members of the Cabinet— from seeking to join the next national and county governments. He argues that the Executive power is exercised and shared by the President, DP and the Cabinet.
Also Read:
He wants the Attorney General to declare that when Articles 130 (1), 131 (1) (b) and 148 (6)(a) are read together, they mean that the president and his deputy cannot stand for nomination as presidential candidates.
“The petitioner brings this petition for an interpretation of the provisions… with regards to qualifications and disqualifications of persons intending to vie as a presidential candidate,” reads court papers.
“By virtue of Article 148(6) of the Constitution, a sitting Deputy President who has served two consecutive full terms should be barred from standing for nomination as a presidential candidate,” he adds.
Open interpretation
Through lawyer John Khaminwa, Livondo says the ruling will address the ambiguity in time given that “the current Deputy President and other people among them members of the Cabinet have made it known that they intend to seek a nomination as a presidential candidate” in 2022.
Livondo contends that the absence of the definition of Executive authority or national executive in Article 260 of the Constitution allows open interpretation of the terms with a view to promoting the meaning and spirit of the Constitution.
Livondo avers that since the deputy president and cabinet secretaries do not have to go through nomination and are appointed by the president, they work together as a single unit and are, therefore, bound by the two-term constitutional limit.
