Kenya’s finest Purse, the People’s Republic of China has approved the removal of term limits in a move that effectively allows Xi Jinping to remain as president for life.
The constitutional changes were passed by China’s annual sitting of the National People’s Congress in a Country that has imposed a two-term limit on its president since the 1990s.
Telltale signs were conspicuous when Mr. Xi defied the tradition of presenting a potential successor during last October’s Communist Party Congress.
Instead, he consolidated his political power as the party voted to enshrine his name and political ideology in the party’s constitution – elevating his status to the level of its founder, Mao Zedong.
This would be none of our business save of course for the fact that my unborn child owes China thousands of shillings thanks to Jubilee’s borrowing but it is deeper than that. It weighs down to how African Countries continue to smelt at the allure of China’s model of economic and Political development.
So far in East Africa, Kenya is the only Country that vaunts some traces of Democracy; Ethiopia and Rwanda have become open Autocracies.
Uganda has been under the hand of Museveni for well over 30 years and not even Karate expertise from dissenting Parliamentarians could stop him from extending his term limit. In Burundi, only so much can be said of President Nkurunziza who sends soccer officials to jail for allowing him to fall during a match. Needless to say, he seems bent on retaining control and extending his autocratic rule beyond constitutional provisions.
The land of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere is not spared either, chief whip of the opposition party was shot and airlifted to Kenya for medical attention not to mention the crackdown on Media with President John Maghufuli shutting down several newspapers.
As Autocracy continues to grow in the region, Africa’s role model abolishes Presidential term limits!
In fact, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party earlier in the year had reached an agreement to have Chinese Communist Party train ‘Tano Tena’ mandarins on Democracy. The irony of this lands a sour taste on my buds. In the pact, CPC would sponsor 20 Jubilee party officials to learn on grassroots mobilization, democracy and party management.
With Jubilee always dangling tyranny of numbers on our faces and with our lawmakers known to sit on their brains and substitute the same with air especially after cheap bribes, are we safe? For how long can we hold on to the little democracy we have left before we are also served with a steaming dish of autocracy.
After all, did I not hear of a Bill to have a seven years Presidential term with an equally powerful Prime Minister position? After all, Uhunye is still but a toddler compared to the Octogenarians who have refused to let go of power in Africa.
By Aoko Otieno
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