Naivasha team votes for House of 325 MPs

The number of MPs is to increase from 222 to 325, a House team negotiating the draft constitution agreed on Wednesday.

Elected MPs will increase to 266 while 59 will be nominated.

Currently, only 12 MPs are nominated. But the parliamentary select committee on the constitution could not agree on how the extra constituencies are to be created.

Join the talks

So it has invited the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission to join the talks on Thursday morning to help with the chapter on representation, which dominated proceedings on Wednesday. The number of MPs nominated by political parties will remain 12, but the proposed counties will be allowed to nominate 47.

Women MPs at the meeting demanded 40 House slots, in what emerged to be a most contentious issue. Discussion on representation started on Tuesday at 4pm and went on till 11pm. The PSC chairman, Mr Abdikadir Mohammed, said the committee had agreed on the numbers but “the final agreement will only come after meeting experts.”

The issue on Tuesday night was how constituencies should be established. One school of thought is that it should be based on population, another that it be based on geographical area. It was agreed that the question of the formula be shelved and experts called in to help.

Daily briefings

Vice chairman Ababu Namwamba said the public should not judge his team on the basis of daily briefings but on its final reports, which will be made public as soon as the week-long meeting is concluded. The MPs are said to have agreed that specific rules for changing constituency boundaries should be entrenched in the constitution.

In the course of the debate, the MPs at some point agreed that the minimum number of constituencies should be 300, the maximum 315. That changed and it was finally agreed that only 56 extra seats should be created. They also decided that a proposal in the revised draft that each of the proposed counties elect a woman to the national assembly be retained.

Currently, the minimum number of constituencies is 188 while the maximum is 210. The MPs also debated on the most appropriate formula for differentiating between rural, urban and sparsely populated areas. During Wednesday’s sessions, women MPs said in case the proposal to have an additional 90 constituencies was passed, 40 should be set aside exclusively for women. Their male counterparts, however, protested and demanded that the women should justify why they should receive the “free” seats.

In the current Constitution, men and women contest for parliament equally. But the draft constitution suggests that no gender should occupy more than two-thirds of the parliamentary seats. The revised draft proposes that the National Assembly should consist of members elected one each by the constituencies. It adds that each of the proposed 47 counties should elect a woman to the House.

The draft proposes that Parliament consists of members elected on the basis of proportional representation through party lists to represent women, the disabled, marginalised communities and groups, the youth and workers. On Wednesday, there was heated debate on whether the proposed Senate was necessary.

The draft says the role of the Senate is to provide an institution through which the interests of the devolved governments are represented in the enacting laws concerning counties and to protect the interests of county governments. The proposed senators are to be elected by counties on the basis of a member for each county, members elected on the basis of proportional representation to represent women, persons with disabilities, and the youth.

There was intense lobbying as women MPs walked in and out of the venue trying to talk their colleagues into accepting their positions. Nominated MPs Millie Odhiambo, Sophia Abdi Noor and Amina Abdalla could be seen trying to persuade their colleagues. Others were Ms Martha Karua, Cabinet Ministers Charity Ngilu and Beth Mugo. Ms Mugo is a friend of the PSC and is allowed to attend the proceedings but is not eligible to vote.