Kenya MPs meet to end row on new voting zones
A section of MPs at a sensitisation retreat on the proposed constitution at the Kenya Institute of Administration on March 18, 2010. A meeting set for Monday seeks to end the row arising from the list of new constituencies. Photo/FILE
MPs converge at the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA) in Nairobi on Monday to resolve the row over new constituencies.
The meeting, convened by Parliament’s departmental committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs, seeks to end the row arising from the list of new constituencies drafted by the defunct Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission.
Sources within the committee chaired by Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba said the team had recommended that the Ligale list be handed over to the yet to be formed Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission so that it can review the boundaries afresh.
The MP, however, expressed fears that some legislators were adamant that the Ligale list be adopted by Parliament in its current form.
“I am seeing a deadlock in tomorrow’s meeting because some MPs want to hear nothing else,” said the legislator.
Nairobi Metropolitan minister Njeru Githae supported the committee’s position.
“The Ligale team is as dead as a dodo. What should happen is that Ligale’s list should be handed over to the yet to be formed electoral body so that it looks at it afresh,” the Ndia MP said on phone from Uganda.
A meeting between the Cabinet sub committee on the Constitution and the Namwamba-led departmental committee scheduled for last Thursday to explore ways of resolving the row was called off at the last minute by Prime Minister Raila Odinga because it coincided with the national dialogue and reconciliation conference chaired by chief mediator Kofi Annan.
