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Friday, November 16, 2007

A Few Questions for ODM

Now that ODM has launched its election manifesto, I have a few questions I would like answered. (Disclaimer: I have not had the opportunity to look through the manifesto and would appreciate it if someone availed it online. The queries here are based on media reports.)

On the Constitution
;
1.What are the specific constitutional structures that ODM wants to put in place to achieve Ugatuzi?

2. If these are contained in the Bomas Draft which has already been scuttled by the 9th Parliament, is there not need for new legislation to govern its reintroduction in the 10th Parliament? If not, then since the Act that created the Bomas review process gives Parliament the final say on the Bomas Draft, how can they guarantee that MPs will not meddle with the Bomas Draft (as they did during Kibaki's tenure) especially considering that ODM is unlikely to have have a majority (112 MPs) in the 10th Parliament?

3. Will there be another referendum so Kenyans can give their verdict on whatever comes out of Parliament?

4. Is 6 months sufficient time to enact a new review law and/or have the Bomas Draft debated in Parliament and/or hold a referendum?

On Free Secondary Education
1. Since ODM holds the view that free primary education has been at best a qualified success (emphasising quantity and not quality), wouldn't it have been better to conentrate of repairing that system instead of exporting the problems to secondary education?

2. Where is the funding going to come from to fix primary education as well as make secondary schooling free? Does he have any estimates on how much he is expecting to spend to ensure the success of the policy?

3. What measures will he put in place to prevent the chaos, caused by the sudden influx of students into schools were ill-equipped to accommodate them, that was witnessed in the first days of free primary education repeating itself with regard to secondary schools?

On the NEP
1. Since he is proposing a Ministry for the North East Province, will he do the same for other marginalised areas in Kenya?

2. Will he give up the Presidential power to rule the NEP by decree (I'm not sure if the IPPG reforms did away with these)?