Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka has called for the Prime Minister’s position to have more authority than is currently being proposed by the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) taskforce report.
The former Vice President said that the proposed premier’s position should be as powerful as that of current Majority Leader and should come from Parliament, and not being limited to National Assembly. “I would have preferred a situation where the Prime Minister has some authority and recognized as a senior position akin to that of the leader of the majority party in Parliament. I don’t know why the taskforce was so mean on the position.” He also stated that the report should have been explicit on the relationship between Senate and National Assembly by defining the same.
Mr Musyoka further said he hoped the taskforce would have addressed the issue of party hopping to herald a new dawn of political discipline in the country’s political landscape.
He pointed out that the current requirement that requires a rebel party member to resign in writing to the Speaker has left political parties at the mercy of such members. “In order for there to be serious discipline among political formations in the country, if someone was elected on a Wiper party ticket then they decide to go against the party that gave them the leadership then the party should be given the power to withdraw the person’s leadership.” The former VP, however, lauded the proposals on media being given primacy in the fight against corruption; rewarding whistle blowers although he was against a measurable reward.
He also supported the gender parity proposals but differed on some calls on the gender of President and the deputy. “I only wish to disagree on the point where some governors raised that if the President is a man then the deputy should be of the opposite gender. The leadership is different at that level.” He called on a taskforce of experts set to take over the fine tuning of the report to be all-inclusive where main political movements given a chance to propose their choice experts to make every party feel included. “We are urging as a party, a free discussion of the report. What I am saying is just a tip of the iceberg but we will say more at the end of our party deliberations. There are some small changes that I know we will have after reading the entire report which we will soon make public.” Meanwhile, the party’s chairman Chirau Ali Makwere said the party will early next year hold its party grassroots election within the first three months. “Our intention is to invade areas which are not our strongholds but also stay in those we are strong. We want to make Wiper a party of choice.”