Punguza Mizigo signatures review concluded

The electoral agency will today or tomorrow announce whether the over one million signatures collected to amend the Constitution qualify. 

Officials were yesterday finalizing the review of data captured from 1.4 million signatures in the Punguza Mizigo Campaign. 

The campaign by Thirdway Alliance party led by lawyer Ekuru Akot submitted the signatures to the IEBC in February. 

“Work has been finished and the results will be announced either tomorrow (Thursday) or Friday” Edgar Aswani, communication officer at IEBC, said.

IEBC had promised the exercise would be concluded by the end of this week. 

If the signatures will be qualified, a report will be sent to all the 47 county assemblies for debate.

The alliance is seeking to reduce the number of MPs, abolish Woman Representative and Deputy Governor positions.

The party says the goal is to reduce the cost of running Parliament from current Sh36.8 billion to Sh5 billion annually.

This will save the taxpayer about Sh31 billion every year. 

Further, it wants to address overrepresentation by reducing the number of MPs from the current 416 to 147.

The party is also proposing a seven-year term for the President down from the maximum of two five-year terms. 

To address gender inequality, it proposes Kenyans elect one man and woman from each of the 47 counties into the National Assembly.

It also wants to abolish nominations to the county assemblies and Senate.

The party proposes the Senate to be an upper house with veto powers and an increase in county revenue share to 35 per cent from the current 15 per cent.