Ligale-led team to name 80 new vote blocs soon

By Beauttah Omanga

The Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission (IIBRC) said it would announce creation of new 80 constituencies by November 27, when its term expires.

Chairman Andrew Ligale said the commission is looking at modalities of carving out the new electoral areas.

The new constituencies, however, will elect their MPs in the 2012 General Election.

Ligale allied fears the commission was behind schedule.

"We are in the final phase of our mandate and by November 27, we will have made known the boundaries of both the new constituencies and the wards," announced Ligale.

He clarified that his commission will not be bound by the distribution of the constituencies as agreed by the Parliamentary Service Commission early this year.

"The MPs who met in Naivasha came up with their numbers using their own method. We will use what is recommended in the new Constitution, which will not necessarily agree with what they announced," said Ligale.

He said the new Constitution, to be promulgated tomorrow at Uhuru Park, gives the commission powers to gazette the extra constituencies without refereeing the matter to Parliament for a review.

"Our decision will stand for 8-12 years. We are slow because we don’t want to make mistakes," said the IIBRC chairman.

Ligale was addressing a press conference at a Nairobi hotel. He said as soon as the 2009 census are announced next week, the commission will form the basis for delimitation of the new constituencies.

Views collected

"We are setting up a geographic information system laboratory for data analysis and synthesis," he said.

Ligale said the remaining three months would be enough to accomplish the objectives for fair determination of boundaries. He said Kenyans could contest IIBRC decision in court.

He said his team has no powers to alter the boundaries of the 47 counties, which will have to wait until Parliament decides on how they will be reviewed in future.

Speaking at a news conference after the commission ended a three-month excercise to collect views from Kenyans on delimitation of boundaries in May, Ligale said many wanted split of constituencies and creation of more districts to ensure better representation.

The IIBRC chairman also said the commission found that some areas were not well represented while others were over represented.