Kenya boundaries row heads to court
A section of MPs intend to move to court on Monday morning to prevent the boundary review commission from gazetting 80 new constituencies. Photo/FILE
The dispute over the creation of new constituencies could be headed to the courts.
A section of MPs intend to move to court on Monday morning to prevent the boundary review commission from gazetting 80 new constituencies.
The formula that was used to draw up the new electoral areas has sparked a major row.
According to the chairman of Central Kenya MPs caucus, Ephraim Maina, the MPs will seek the court’s intervention to forestall what they view as a flawed formula.
The MPs base their opposition to the creation and distribution of the new constituencies on two main grounds.
First, they argue that the Andrew Ligale team used flawed population census figures in creating new constituencies in North Eastern — a region whose population census figures were cancelled by the government.
“We want to know what population figures they used to create new constituencies for areas whose population is not known,” said the Mathira MP.
Second, the MPs will also be challenging the constitutionality of using provinces as the basis for the distribution of new constituencies, arguing that the new law does not recognise provinces as administrative units.
Ligale’s formula for the creation of new constituencies, they argue, contravened the universal one-man-one-vote principle.
The case will no doubt complicate matters further for the Interim Independent Boundary Review Commission, which is already spilt down the middle over the formula used in the creation and distribution of the new constituencies.
A Cabinet minister who spoke to the Nation on condition of anonymity, said that President Kibaki had been advised to block the gazettement of the new constituencies.
Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo has also rejected the Ligale list of new constituencies.
And on Sunday, Eldoret North MP William Ruto called on Mr Kilonzo to step down, claiming he did not understand his mandate regarding the creation of new boundaries.
Speaking in Tetu, Mr Ruto argued that it was wrong and unfair for the Justice minister to lament that he did not understand what was happening in the review team.
