NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 8 – Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale has opposed a push by a section of MPs to have 11 more counties created.
Kenya currently has 47 counties that replaced the former provinces.
More than 20 MPs under the National Assembly Parliamentary Caucus have already petitioned the Bomas Dialogue committee to consider the need to have elevem more counties created.
Khalwale observed that some of the current counties ought to be merged to create ten viable economic units.
“62 senators comprising 20 elected by universal suffrage (man & woman per county to be head and deputy head of county delegations) + 42 each representing our diverse ethnic communities (to be elected by respective county MCAs),” he said.
Khalwale said the ten units include Western, Nyanza, North Rift, South Rift, Nairobi, Upper Eastern, Lower Eastern, Northern Eastern, Coast and Central.
Kileleshwa Member of County Assembly Robert Alai has also come out to oppose the proposal of increasing more counties.
He said the 47 counties existing have been a complete waste.
“We don’t even need more than 20 counties. Adding another 11 on top of the 47 we have is a complete waste,” he said.
The legislators from the Minority side in the National Assembly led by Kuria East MP Marwa Gitayama want an independent commission to set up by Parliament for the process of altering county boundaries.
They said the 47 established counties were not final but a basis for a rationalized delimitation process.
“The notion that there will be a referendum for this purpose is not true. The constitutional markers, the committee of experts which realized that this matter will come of age after ten years realized it will require a route that will not burden Kenyans through a referendum,” he said.
The lawmakers resolved to present the joint memorandum to the National Dialogue Committee urging them to support the proposal to add Kuria, Teso, Mount Elgon, East Pokot, Mwingi, Gucha, Suba, Ijara, Nakuru West, Wajir South and Nyambene as counties.
“We reference Chapter 4.6 from the report of the committee of experts on constitutional review which emphasizes the provisional adoption of districts as the 47 proposed counties. This was intended as a starting point for a new dispensation, with room for future adjustments to the boundaries of devolved units,” Gitayama said.
The proposal to increase the number of counties has a consequent amendment to both Articles 97 and 98 that will also enhance elected woman representatives and senators from 47 to 57.
According to Article 188 of the constitution, the boundaries of a county may be altered only by a resolution recommended by an independent commission set up for that purpose by Parliament.
It must gunner at least two-thirds of support of members of the National Assembly and the Senate.
