Speaking during a press conference on Friday, Thirdway Alliance leader Ekuru Aukot urged county assemblies to adopt the draft Bill saying proposals made in will entrench devolution/CFM – MOSES MUOKI
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 19 – The Thirdway Alliance party has urged county assemblies to adopt its Punguza Mizigo referendum Bill forwarded to the 47 legislative bodies by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Thursday.
IEBC verified 1.2 million signatures of registered voters in support of the initiative.
Speaking during a press conference on Friday, Thirdway Alliance leader Ekuru Aukot urged county assemblies to adopt the draft Bill saying proposals made in will entrench devolution.
He further urged all Kenyans to read this Bill carefully and not to politicize it.
“I am urging all our leaders and Kenyans at large to take this initiative positively, support it and remove any kind of politics from it. I am certain that if no politics will be included in this bill, then all he forty seven counties will back it up,” Aukot said.
“And to our Parliamentarians, both in the National Assembly and the Senate, this Bill is about strengthening our constituencies and bringing real change to our people. I appeal to you not to take it as political competitiveness because it is not. Talk to all your MCAs and ask them to support it.”
He further called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to look no further for his legacy urging him, his DP William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga to publicly declare their support for the Bill.
Aukot said that the country will save at least Sh3.8 billion annually should the proposal to slash the number of national legislators from the current 416 to 147 be adopted.
The Bill further proposes the election of two representatives of either gender from the country’s 47 counties in a bid to bridge the gender gap and conform to the two thirds gender rule constitutional requirement.
The initiative is also seeking to use each of the 1,450 wards as the primary unit of accelerated development, replacing the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).
If at least 24 county assemblies approve the Bill within three months, the stage will be set for the National Assembly and the Senate to either approve or reject it.
The Bill will be ready for the Presidential Assent if it gets the backing of the majority of the members of the two Houses.
It will, however, be submitted to the people for a referendum should it fail to get Parliament’s approval.
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