“Punda Amechoka,” was a campaign popularised by Moses Kuria, in response to CORD’s Okoa Kenya referendum call. After Okoa Kenya’s spectacular collapse, MK’s drive was quietly tucked away and the energetic Gatundu MP moved on the more interesting stuff; Elections 2022. In reality the issues raised in the Punda Amechoka campaign did not go away despite its political owners having moved on. The fiscal impact and the reduced effectiveness of the legislature, both at the national and, county level, becomes more evident each year.
At present, Kenya boasts of 384 elected and 32 nominated Members of Parliament sitting in the National Assembly and the Senate. The counties boast of 1,450 elected and 774 nominated MCAs. These large numbers of MPs and MCAs represent a relatively small population of only 40 million Kenyans. It is heartening that Dr Ekuru Aukot’s Thirdway Alliance has taken the baton and is pushing for a referendum to reduce the number of MPs. However because of its minnow stature in Kenya’s political sphere, the matter has not attracted the interest that it deserves.
Truth be told, the current size of Parliament is not just an unnecessary drain on the Exchequer costing us upwards of Sh30 billions each year, but it also leads to dysfunction, inefficiency and ineffectiveness particularly in the National Assembly. The dysfunction is clear from the confusion about the roles of MPs in view of the changed stature of the constituency as the locum of development after devolution. The constant infighting between MPs and Governors as the former compete for space to “do development” arises largely from a failure by MPs to be gainfully engaged in their core mandate of legislation and oversight.
It is also evident in the ensuing confusion about the role of the 47 Women Representatives who compete not just with their fellow MPs for space, but also with the county leadership as they seek for local relevance. With the locum for development having shifted to county governments, why does each county still need an average 7 MPs to sit in Nairobi? Why not just two, a man and a woman to assist in legislation and oversight? They would be so busy making laws, approving budgets and overseeing the Executive they would have no time for the constant interference with operations in their home county!
The inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the House is recognisable from the sheer inability of most members to participate meaningfully in parliamentary processes. How does one expect 349 members to participate effectively in debate? Even parliamentary committees have more than 50 members! It is time we reduced National Assembly members to not more than 100 and senators to a maximum of 60 the extra 13 curing any arising gender deficiency. I would however go further than Ekuru’s campaign and propose that we also reduce the number of wards so that each county averages 20 elected MCAs. This would naturally lead to the reduction of nominated MCAs thus making these critical organs more efficient.
The large number of available positions for elections and nominations many times feeds incompetence and inefficiencies in the assemblies. The pressure on the economy from all these legislators, including the battery of bureaucrats that attend to each of them, the mileage, sitting, travel and related allowances and just the stress on the Executive in managing them is too much for our young democracy. Two events make this the moment to introduce these changes to our Constitution.
Firstly, this is the year of boundaries review. The assumption is that we will review the number of wards and constituencies upwards. I believe the moment calls for their reduction and a change in the electoral system. Secondly, it is clear that there is a push to revise the Constitution to deal with the interests of politicians. How good it would be if we used this moment to also resolve the interests of the general populace. So, Dr Ekuru and your team, hang in there, seek allies in the non-state actor community and let us resolve this one for the betterment of our great nation.
- The writer is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. [email protected]
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