A day after Punguza Mizigo Bill was submitted to the county assemblies, a case has been filed to block it.
Timothy Odhiambo says the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission failed to authenticate the signatures of 1.2 million Kenyans who purportedly supported the Bill.
He says the process is flawed without verification of the signatures and should not be allowed to proceed.
“As matters currently stand and in the absence of a conservatory order against the impugned Bill, the respondent (IEBC) would be subjecting county assemblies and possibly Parliament as well as the people of Kenya to a fundamentally flawed process well knowing it could potentially be nullified by the court,” Odhiambo says.
This, he said, has the potential of wasting substantial resources both financial and human.
If the Bill is approved by a majority of county assemblies within three months after the date it was submitted, it shall be introduced in Parliament without delay.
Once Parliament passes it, the Bill will be sent to the President for assent. It will, however, be submitted to the people for a referendum should it fail to get Parliament’s approval.
The Bill proposes among other things an increase of county revenue share allocation from the current 15 per cent to at least 35 per cent.
It further seeks to cut the number of MPs from the current 416 to 147 and alter the President’s term from the current two five-year terms to a single seven-year term.
The initiative sponsored by Thirdway Alliance was submitted to the IEBC on February 28 to verify whether it has been supported by at least one million voters.
The commission on July 18 announced that the initiative was supported by 1.2 million voters.
Edited by R.Wamochie
