Garissa Governor Ali Korane has opposed the Punguza Mizigo Bill, saying the county is waiting for the Building Bridges Initiative task force report.
MCAs, however, have promised to support the Bill once it is tabled.
They agreed to support the Bill fronted by Thirdway Alliance's Ekuru Aukot in its current form. The MCAs said they will not to bow to pressure from politicians to reject it.
Korane was addressing the press at his Garissa residence on Friday. He said there is little to celebrate about Punguza Mizigo's proposals. The governor said he will only pick meaningful recommendations from it and include them in the BBI report.
“It is still too early to talk about the Bill. We cannot tell whether it is good or if the assembly will pass it at this point. We will have more consultations with the assembly members to have a common ground,” Korane said.
“One thing I, however, want to make clear is that even as we go about finding a common ground on the subject, we will not coerce anyone. The assembly is an independent institution and MCAs have the final say on the bill.”
County assembly speaker Ibrahim Abass received the Bill last Friday and said they will support it. He told off politicians who had warned that MCAs risked the wrath of residents if they passed it.
“The county assembly is not an extension of the National Assembly. We are an independent House whose members understand their mandate,” Abass said.
Aukot, who was in Garissa to popularise the Bill, said the BBI terms of reference have nothing to do with constitutional change.
He said it is only the MCAs who can pass a Bill initiated through a popular initiative for a constitutional review and warned those threatening MCAs against passing it.
Some of the proposals in the bill include reducing the cost of running Parliament, reducing the number of MPs from 416 to 147 and the number of constituencies from 290 to 94.
It also proposes using the 47 counties as a single constituency unit for purposes of parliamentary elections, electing one man and one woman from each of the 47 counties to the National Assembly and abolishing the position of deputy governor.
Other proposals include abolishing nomination seats in county assemblies and the Senate, reducing special interest group seats in the National Assembly to six from 12 and using the ward as the primary unit of development.
Edited by R.Wamochie
