Plan to extend president’s time in power crashes email address

The email address for the public to comment on laws proposed in Kenya’s Senate has crashed after an overwhelming response to a controversial bill.

The bill seeks to extend the terms in office for the president, county governors and MPs from five to seven years, among other constitutional amendments.

The plan was met with public anger and Kenyans have been mobilising on social media.

The upper house of the country’s parliament received more than “200,000 submissions, reaching the maximum capacity”, said a post on the Senate’s X account.

Even though it was put forward by one of its senators, Samson Cherargei, the party of President William Ruto has distanced itself from the plan.

United Democratic Alliance (UDA) secretary-general Hassan Omar had earlier described the bill as “repugnant and backward”, the Nation newspaper reports.

Cherargei defended his plan saying that seven years would give the president and others enough time to deliver on their pledges.

The public had until Friday to share their thoughts.

Sources within parliament told The Star newspaper that emails were sent every second, adding that no bill had received such a number of responses.

While thanking people for their submissions, the Senate said that “due to high volumes… our email system has temporarily experienced issues”. It then provided an alternative address.

As well as increasing term lengths, the bill sets out to create the position of prime minister and increase funding to the county administrations.

A senate committee is now due to evaluate the public responses.

The proposed legislation comes at a time when Kenyan lawmakers are under intense scrutiny and as people continue to struggle with the high cost of living.

A series of demonstrations, beginning in June, against measures to increase taxes turned violent and led to at least 40 deaths.

The president then reversed his plans and sought to appease the mood by including opposition members in his cabinet.

But a deep cynicism about politicians remains and anything that smacks of extending their time in power is met with derision.

This is the second attempt to change the two-term limit on presidents since Ruto came to office in 2022.

Two years’ ago, a ruling party MP wanted to replace it with an age limit of 75 years. However, the proposal failed after a public outcry.

The president has previously rejected the scrapping of the term limit, calling the attempt “unnecessary and an exercise in futility”.

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