Kenyan president dismisses parliament bid to lift his term limit

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Kenya's president on Wednesday rejected attempts by lawmakers to remove a limit on his tenure to give him 20 years in office.

William Ruto shut down attempts by a section of lawmakers to annul a Constitutional limit of two five-year presidential terms that would have opened the way for him to lead the East African nation for 20 years.

"Do not spend your time pushing for selfish and self-serving legislation, like changing the Constitution to remove term limits. My focus is service to the people," Ruto told legislators from the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA), which holds a majority in the National Assembly.

Ruto was speaking at the State House in the capital Nairobi during a parliamentary group meeting of the UDA, urging lawmakers to focus on delivering and coming up with bills that would improve lives.

The country has been in uproar over plans to remove the term limit in a proposal by Salah Yakub, a member of parliament from the western Fafi region, to replace it with an age limit of 75 years. Ruto is currently 55.

There has been a growing trend across Africa to evade presidential term limits, weakening governance.

According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, since 2015, leaders of 13 countries have evaded or overseen the further weakening of term limit restrictions that had been in place.

Those countries include Algeria, Burundi, Chad, Comoros, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea, Rwanda, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, and the Republic of Congo.