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Kenya:I’ll leave when my term expires, said President Kenyatta

October 30, 2018

By Samuel Ouma President Uhuru Kenyatta has downplayed speculations going around that he is advocating for constitution amendments to extend his tenure which expires in 2022. Speaking to CNN on Monday 29, the Head of State divulged he will not seek presidency again even if he is granted a chance. “I’m not interested in serving another term. I will not take up the chance even if everyone wanted me to,” said Kenyatta. He maintained he is keen in achieving his development agenda affected by the last year’s elections. He decried over chaotic scenario which hamper the nation’s economic growth after every election. According to Amnesty International, Human Rights watch, a hundreds of people were killed following disputed presidential results. “Kenya is always gentle and loving country except for when there is an election. This is the belief we are trying to come out of,” he added. On the referendum, Kenyatta said the proponents of the plebiscite are seeking to a few sections of the supreme laws in order to reduce the cost of running government and cost of living which has made Kenyans to dig deeper into the pockets to meet high cost of life. In September the government increased by 8 per cent value added tax on petroleum products and fuel. “People are talking about constitutional change not necessarily that they are desirous for the president to seek a third term but because of issues related to the cost of running this constitution,” he said. In current constitution, the National Assembly has 290 elected members each representing a constituency, 47 women representative and 12 members nominated to represent women, youth and marginalized. The Senate comprised of 47 elected Senators, 16 women nominated for gender balance and four representatives of the youth and the disabled. Moreover, there are 47 governors, 1,450 elected Members of County Assembly and 774 nominated ones. At the same time the Head of State defended the country’s huge debt to China saying the money has been used in infrastructure development. “What would worry me if the debt that we have incurred has gone to recurrent expenditure like salaries. But we have utilized that debts to close the infrastructure gap and anyone coming to Nairobi after 10 years will be able to know,” reiterated Kenyatta. He questioned why people are mainly concerned about the country’s to China but forgetting US, Japan, France and other international lenders saying France has lent the country for electricity projects while Japan is the  biggest lender to the country’s port projects. “As far as I am concerned we have a very healthy mix of debt from the multi-lateral lenders who are the World Bank and African Development Bank to bilateral lending from Japan, France and all are working with us to help us achieve our agenda,” he maintained.    

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