The 2027 General Election could be held together with a national constitutional referendum, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has hinted.

Speaking during an end of year interview with Chams Media, Mudavadi said some of the constitutional issues that need to be resolved can be dealt with in a referendum to avoid time wasting especially in Parliament and the courts.

“The reason I am putting this debate in the public is because we don’t want to have arguments constantly on some issues that we know parliament may not want or manage to resolve. Same to the courts, and thus the voice of Kenyans must prevail,” noted the Prime CS.

“We can use the 2027 election as the first example to have those issues that have never been resolved crafted well into sensible referendum questions that will help amend our 2010 Constitution,” said Mudavadi.

“Kenyans should buy into this idea and we begin this discussion in 2026 ahead of the 2027 General Election.

According to Mudavadi, Kenyans have come of age to vote for multiple issues at the ballot explaining that they have already been able to vote for over six options on the ballot in previous elections.

Just like earlier examples including the nullification of a Presidential election by Kenya’s Supreme Court, he said, this will not only set precedence in Africa, but a successful process will attract global recognition.

The implementation of the NADCO report, he said, could be one of the main anchors of this debate.

“For instance, the NADCO report. We are not hearing much about it but Parliament was tasked to resolve the issues there. Now that there is too much back and forth, why can’t we take this to IEBC and they craft a question or two to be subjected to a constitutional referendum?” Mudavadi stated.

“There were issues of inclusivity or lack of inclusivity being raised. Perhaps when one wanted to talk about introducing it in the NADCO report plus the issue on whether we need to have a substantive Prime

Minister, this could be a time to resolve it through a referendum ballot,” he argued.

About logistical and budgetary implications, he said nothing would change much in terms of the cost of the election as the two exercises will run simultaneously.

He added that once the questions are well crafted and the ballot for the referendum is availed Kenyans are mature and intelligent enough to vote for the political leadership and put their voice on a YES or NO question on the constitutional issues to be canvassed.

“I think this is the time. We have other issues like how to deal with the Constituency Development Fund, this matter has been a subject of back and forth between Parliament and the Courts, and we need to put it to rest and anchor it on our constitutional framework,” said Mudavadi.

If well managed, this model will yield greater results and save the tax-payer a lot of money as well as save the country time to focus on other critical issues including development, job creation and turning around the economy at the expense of continuous politicking.

“First, we’ll solve issues that our parliament has been unable to resolve. Two, we will get a higher voter turnout. And three, we will be moving the country away from constant bickering on an issue to now moving to the next phase of implementing some of those critical issues,” he explained.

Also, his proposal, he argued, would save the country from continuous campaign and election mood after every election cycle as most of the issues will have been dealt with thus giving the ruling administration time to deliver its manifesto.

“Kenyans have been subjected to this debate of people being short-changed after elections, we have questions of structures that have to be negotiated, and to resolve these issues once and for all for them to become constitutional and avoid wasting more time after the general election, this proposal stands the test of time.” Mudavadi pointed out.

“It is time now that we also resolve the issue on gender, this debate on 2/3rds gender rule has remained to be an endless discussion, and when people ask for public participation, what could be the biggest public participation if not a referendum,” he added.