The issues fuelling boundaries battle

By KIPCHUMBA SOME

Battle to control Parliament after the 2012 General Election and the allocation of constituency funds are the main reasons fuelling the current row on creation of 80 new constituencies.

Multiple interviews by The Standard on Saturday with MPs and political observers suggest that the twin issues are behind the raging row, which has threatened to scuttle the work of one of the Agenda Four commissions. The fight for constituencies got murkier as 11 MPs moved to court on Friday to stop the gazettement of the 290 constituencies by the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission.

That brings to three the number of cases filed in the High Court either seeking to stop or gazette the new constituencies.

So far most MPs are supporting the newly created constituencies but that has not stopped the big split in Parliament as MPs from Rift Valley, Western, Nyanza, and North Eastern support the Andrew Ligale team’s proposal.

Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo blames IIBRC commissioners for creating the disharmony that is being witnessed. "All Serena Agenda Four commissions were designed to bring harmony and cohesion for Kenyans but IIBRC is the spoiler boy," said Mutula on Friday.

But experts say the vicious fighting is because the Constitution has greatly whittled down the powers of the presidency and vested them in the two houses of Parliament — the Senate and the National Assembly.

Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo, Nominated MP George Nyamweya, IIBRC Chairman Andrew Ligale and Budalang’i MP Ababu amwamba during a retreat in Mombasa recently. [PHOTO: OMONDI ONYANGO/STANDARD]

This means that whichever party will control both houses will have a great say in the execution of important national legislation and the general direction the country will take.

A political scientist at University of Nairobi Adams Oloo said "each political party wants a situation that they would control both the National Assembly and the Senate after the next General Election."

Law lecturer and political commentator Kipchumba Murkommen argued that the parliamentary strength of various political parties would be a factor after 2012elections.

"You might produce the president but if you do not have the numbers in Parliament to push through legislation, then you know that your presidency is not secure," he said.

He cited the current case where the party with the most seats lost the presidency. President Kibaki’s PNU has 49 MPs as opposed to Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ODM, which has 99 seats.

The Central Province and Eastern MPs who have rejected the new units contend that it does not address this imbalance, more so given the fact they have Kenya’s largest ethnic group.

However, Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba disagreed with the view that political considerations of the 2012 polls are playing a role in the current acrimony.

Not clear yet

"I don’t want to reduce such a monumental national issue to mere ethnic posturing," he said. "I urge my colleagues to scrutinise whether the Ligale team applied the constitutional formula in creating the new boundaries before reaching a conclusion," he added.

While admitting that parliamentary considerations might be at play in the on-going debate, former Siakago MP Justin Muturi said that it is to a minimal extent.

Although the fate of CDF under the new Constitution is not yet clear, it will determine how much resources will be allocated to each county, a silent factor behind the falling out amongst MPs.

For example a county with more constituencies will likely get more resources through CDF, unless the programme is restructured to fit the new counties. Runyenjes MP Cecily Mbarire urged her colleagues to show restraint as they wait to know the boundaries of the new units. "I feel it is too early to state whether the Ligale team did a fair job or not given that there are no boundaries in place," she said.

In releasing its report, the Ligale team did not indicate new boundaries of the affected constituencies; a situation that Muturi says has fuelled unnecessary speculation.

IIBRC’s mandate ends in a week’s time and its place will be taken over by the yet-to-be-constituted Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

Calls for splitting of new constituencies got under way almost immediately after the formation of the Coalition Government and was largely fronted by Central Kenya and a section of Eastern Province MPs.

Led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta, the MPs maintained that allegations of rigging in the 2007 General Election were partially fuelled by high voter turnout in some constituencies in Eastern and Central regions, which are mal-apportioned.

Kenya is almost a classic case study of mal-apportioned constituencies — those that vary greatly in population as a result of gerrymandering by the former Kanu regime.

Constituency population vary markedly from as high as 300,000 to as low as 10,000.

At the advent of political pluralism in the early 1990s, former ruling party Kanu split up small and sparsely populated constituencies in its strongholds in Rift Valley, Western, North Eastern and Coast provinces into tiny units to boost its fortunes in Parliament.

The party largely neglected densely populated constituencies mainly in Central and Nyanza, which were opposition strongholds. This skewed sub-division led to traditionally Kanu-supporting constituencies being over-represented in the House.

Ol Kalou MP Erastus Mureithi welcomed the move to split Ol Kalou into two, terming it as long overdue. However, he was cautious that some parts of the country like Dagoreti constituencies had been left out.

Wajir West MP Adan Keynan also supported Ligale’s team saying, "they could not have done it differently."

Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara said the court cases filed by 11 of his colleagues and businessman John Kimanthi would unnecessarily delay the implementation of the new laws.