Youth lobby wants corrupt politicians shot in public to end vice

Members of the Embrace Youth Movement after presenting their views before the Building Bridges Initiative in Nairobi. [Standard]

Politicians who loot public money to fuel their extortionate lifestyle risk public execution, if the recent push by a youth lobby for tough anti-graft laws is enacted.

In the radical change that is set to elicit debate among Kenyans, Embrace Youth Movement (EYM) wants corrupt leaders and politicians found guilty of corruption be executed at a public square to end the vice.

Speaking after presenting their views to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) on Friday, Embrace Youth Movement official George Kamano said if enacted, the law will root out corruption in the country for good.

“Kenyans are still complaining of corruption even after coming up with very many institutions to deal with the vice, it high time we changed our ways of dealing with graft in this country,” he said.

Kamano said the only way Kenya can deal with corruption to put into law the anti-graft stringent measures to deter leaders from dipping their hands into public resources.

“In the event, we have a referendum, the graft question must be included and Kenyans must come out and decide how they want to deal with plunderers,” he added.

The lobby also wants the change of the country's governance system from the current presidential system to a parliamentary system to guarantee a peaceful electioneering period to foster stability and keep our economy grow.

The lobby said expanding the executive will help curb negative tribalism witnessed after every election.

 The youths are also proposing a three-tier government system where there is a president in charge of the national government, Prime Minister in charge of regions and governors in charge of counties.

In their proposal, the country will be divided into 12 regions with the PM as the head with 12 deputies with six being youths.

For the youths, the lobby wants all governors above 35 to be compelled to nominate a youth who is below 35 as running mate and a possible deputy should he or she win the election.

They also want a third of the Cabinet to be preserved for youth and all government appointments including State parastatals to have a 50 per cent youth inclusivity.

To regulate political parties, the lobby also proposes that parties conduct elections annually with memberships spread across more than 25 counties.

 For parties that fail to win any seat in an election, EYM wants them to be dissolved within three years after the said poll.

“We do not need too many parties that end up dividing Kenyans along tribal lines instead of improving our democracy,” Kamano said.

The lobby also proposes that election be staggered to avert chaos and division witnessed in the past polls.

According to EYM, parliamentary elections, and that of the president should not be conducted at different times with all presidential candidates being allowed to contest parliamentary seats.

To give room for continuity, the lobby proposes presidential election to precede the prime minster one by one year.

The lobby hailed the BBI team for collecting views from Kenyans before coming up with a referendum question.

"This is how it should be done, so that Kenyans own the process from the beginning."