Leaders want boundary team set up to resolve regional rows
Busia Senator Amos Wako addresses a session during the second annual Devolution Conference in Kisumu. At the conference, the programme showed that quite a number of Members of Parliament had been invited to participate but did not show up. PHOTO | TOM OTIENO |
What you need to know:
- Wajir Senator Yusuf Haji said boundary fights posed a greater threat to peace and security.
- Governors at the conference warned that boundary disputes might become a bigger problem like terrorism if they are not addressed in time.
Governors on Tuesday called for the setting up of a special team to handle disputes on boundaries in counties.
Wajir Senator Yusuf Haji, who also chairs the Senate Committee on Security, said boundary fights posed a greater threat to peace and security.
“The Interim Independent Boundaries Commission drew the boundaries without consulting communities and there are emerging security issues concerning the demarcation,” he said.
He appealed for the formation of a boundaries commission that would collect people’s views.
Lamu Governor Issa Timamy said Kenya was lucky because it had not experienced serious inter-county disputes but there is a likelihood of such differences escalating into major conflicts.
Most of the governors and county leaders at the second Devolution Conference pushed for the use of alternative disputes resolution to tackle inter-government disputes.
Governors at the conference warned that boundary disputes might become a bigger problem like terrorism if they are not addressed in time.
Transition Authority chairman Kinuthia wa Mwangi suggested that terrorism be declared a national crisis.
PENDING CASES
The leaders noted that county governments and assemblies were spending millions of shillings on court cases which could be solved through disputes resolution.
Speaking during the first session of the conference that was chaired by Kiambu Governor William Kabogo, the panellists noted there were more than half a million pending cases involving counties.
“There are 657,000 cases involving counties and it will take the High Court three years of working without a break to rule on the matters,” said the chairman of the Commission on Administrative Justice Omollo Otiende.
Mr Otiende emphasised the need to find a less confrontational way of resolving disputes instead of taking them to court which was time-consuming and expensive.
“On issues of intergovernmental disputes, we do not want a situation where one county feels it has lost. The disagreements should be resolved in an amicable manner in the presence of a third party,” he said.
He advised that alternative disputes resolution should compliment courts instead of being viewed as an alternative avenue.
Mr Otiende, however, cautioned that alternative disputes resolution must not contravene any of the rights entrenched in the Constitution.
He added that alternative disputes resolution had no capacity to solve boundary disputes between counties saying that such cases were under the jurisdiction of Parliament and the Senate.
Kirinyaga County Assembly Speaker Anne Wangechi Githinji said counties were spending millions of public funds in legal fees, money that could be spent on other pressing issues in the county.
