The Assumption of the Office of the President Bill (2012)
The Assumption of the Office of the President Bill, 2012 is a bill that intends to provide for the procedure and ceremony for the assumption of the Office of President by the President-elect, in accordance with Article 141 of the Constitution. The principal object of the Bill is to operationalize the provisions of Article 141 of the Constitution on the procedure and ceremony for the assumption of the Office of President.
It achieves this by making provisions on the requisite arrangements for assumption of office by the President-elect including the establishment of the Assumption of the Office of President Committee and providing for the procedure for assumption of the Office of President by the President-elect.
The country's next President will be sworn-in fourteen days after being declared the winner. The Assumption of the Office of the President Bill, if passed will also see that the next president is sworn-in at a public ceremony in Nairobi. Clause 12 (1) of the Bill provides that the swearing in of the President - elect shall be conducted in a public ceremony held in the capital city in accordance with Article 141 of the Constitution.
This law will provide a clear framework for handing over power from one President to another. It will have clear time-lines on the swearing in process.
During the ceremony, the deputy President-elect shall also take and subscribe the oath or affirmation of allegiance and oath or affirmation for the execution of the functions of office in accordance with Article 148 of the Constitution. This is a departure from the past when a Vice-President would be sworn in together with the rest of the Cabinet on a different day after being appointed by the President.
The Bill provides for the establishment of the Assumption of the Office of President Committee. The Committee shall publish, by notice in the Gazette, the date and place for the conduct of the swearing-in ceremony. Not only will the committee managing the transition be publicly known, it will also be expected to keep a record of all proceedings for publication in the Kenya Gazette, according to the draft Bill. In a deliberate move to make the process transparent and accountable, the committee is required to prepare a report within three months from the date of the swearing in. The report shall contain the financial statements, a description of its activities and any other information relating to the functions of the committee. The chairperson of the committee shall convene the first meeting at least 30 days before the date of the General Election.
This Bill if passed will therefore make the handing over of power from President Kibaki to the next President fair and transparent a far cry from the chaotic spectacle in which President Kibaki took the reins of power from President Moi in 2002.
Read the whole bill here...
