Audio By Vocalize

Political analyst Prof Patrick Lumumba has urged President William Ruto to enforce the rule of law and free institutions from political control.

Speaking on Wednesday, during an interview on Spice FM, Lumumba said Kenya’s crisis is no longer about absent laws but a deliberate failure to implement the 2010 Constitution, with the Executive steadily eroding independent institutions.

“When we agitated for constitutional reforms in the 1990s, we believed the problem was the constitution. Today we have a new constitution, but executive fiat is back, institutions are weakened and ethics have been ignored,” said Lumumba.

He dismissed the government’s broad-based framework, 10-point agendas and multi-sectoral committees as political theatre that has delivered nothing on the cost of living, corruption or service delivery.

“If the President wants a real legacy, let him bite the bullet and introduce discipline in governance. Otherwise, this idea of broad-based government, 10-point agendas and forming committees will not solve the problem,” he added.

Lumumba called on Parliament to stop controlling development funds and return to its constitutional mandate as an oversight body.

“Remove all funds being managed or patronised by MPs, MCAs and senators and return them to institutions created by law. Parliament must oversee, not execute,” he noted.

He also urged that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and human rights bodies be granted prosecutorial powers and shielded from political interference.

On elections, Lumumba challenged the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to enforce Chapter Six of the Constitution by conducting mandatory wealth audits for all leaders seeking office.

“All those who have served as MPs, governors or MCAs in the last 15 years should declare their wealth and be matched against their records. Those who fail Chapter Six should not be cleared to run,” he observed.

Lumumba cited the flooding affecting several counties as evidence of a government more engaged in political drama than citizen welfare.

“Before the floods, people in the North-Eastern region were losing livestock and nobody cared. Now floods have destroyed crops, yet leaders are engaged in drama instead of solutions,” he said.

He questioned leaders who sought healthcare and education abroad while insisting local systems were functional.

“Ask leaders where their children go to school. Ask them where they go when they are sick. They go to foreign systems because they themselves have no faith in the ones they are telling Kenyans are working,” Lumumba noted.

He warned that the country’s campaign mood was undermining investor confidence and replacing policy planning with political manoeuvring.

“We are in a permanent election mood. Investors do not know what will happen next because politics has replaced planning,” the analyst said.

Lumumba said constitutional commissions, Parliament and county governments have been increasingly bypassed, with key projects such as the housing programme implemented outside established agencies.

“We created institutions so that no single individual would have the yam and the knife and decide how to distribute it. Today, institutions are ignored and everything depends on one office,” he added.

He argued that restoring institutional independence and applying the law equally remained the clearest path to meaningful leadership.

“If discipline is introduced and the law applied equally, corruption will become the exception rather than the rule. That is how nations grow. That is the path the President should take if he wants to leave a legacy,” Lumumba observed.