So far most of the proposed constitutional changes miss the mark

It is increasingly clear that a referendum is inevitable ahead of the 2022 elections. The remaining question is: what features of the Constitution should we amend before 2022? At the moment, the leading camp behind the referendum push - led by Raila Odinga - seem to have wrong answers to this question. The proposals include reducing the number of counties, increasing the number of executive positions, and switching to a parliamentary system of government. All these proposals lack merit.

The claim that Kenya has too many counties is myopic. Our population will more than double in the next 50 years. A Kenya with 80 million people will definitely need a greater density of governance than we have now. In fact, even under current conditions we are still woefully under-governed. We need city, municipal, town and rural governments. These entities need not replicate the structures of the counties -- they can have less than 10 elected members each and specific specialised departments such as refuse collection, water and sanitation, health inspectorate, agricultural extensions.