• Mwaura said the Senate cannot engage in some form of 'tortuous, convoluted, retributive justice'.
•"...where you want to cure one form of marginalisation by creating another, I don’t believe in that Kenya . I believe in a fair Kenya, they could be historical justices but could be cured…” Mwaura said.
The Senate on Tuesday resorted to arguing the revenue sharing formula based on tribal lines.
"This is the injustice we are talking about when debating about the revenue formula," nominated senator Isaac Mwaura said.
"The whole idea is to punish certain counties because of the population because they have produced presidents. When we are talking about this formula, I would urge us to disabuse the notion that we are giving to certain tribes."
Mwaura said Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja's amendment seeks to freeze the population of the country to the 2009 census.
"I beg to disagree. Because we have new data in 2019. If you look at the county of Kilifi, there are 1.4 million people with a current allocation of Sh10 billion against the county of Kiambu with 2.4 million people getting Sh9 billion," he said.
"Equal opportunity is not about a tribe, it's about the population. When I talk about the people of Kiambu, I'm not talking about Kikuyu people. In actual sense, 7 out of 10 people in Kiambu are Kikuyu and Embu but three are not."
Mwaura said the Senate cannot engage in some form of 'tortuous, convoluted, retributive justice'.
"...where you want to cure one form of marginalisation by creating another, I don’t believe in that Kenya . I believe in a fair Kenya, they could be historical justices but could be cured…” Mwaura said.
"Having the presidency still means that you need a better Kenya, equality should not be about tribes. "
Mwaura said when talking about the formula, people should not say that money is being given to some tribes.
"We are talking about one nation, not tribes. No matter how antagonistic we are, we need to rise above all this to come up with a solution."
Senator Margaret Kamar rose up and asked the Senate to stop mentioning tribes but ideologies.
"We are tearing the country apart. Senate is tearing the country apart by giving wrong information and miscalculations," she said.
"We need to run away from mentioning tribes. In my county, 60% of the population are people from other communities. Money going to Uasin Gishu therefore, doesn't only benefit Kalenjins," Kamar said.
Senator Kabaka Mutinda said Kenya needs every county.
"We want the government of Kenya to come out and tell us which part of Kenya is not needed...Any group of Kenyans who are oppressed have the right to secede," he said .
"These are not the old, dark days where anybody who would bring a view to that extent of trying to move, would be threatened with arrest. These days are gone," Mutinda said the Senate has the role of visiting regions.
"...and this Senate should have a programme to visit bushy sandy non productive areas to see the reality on the ground," he said.
"In fact, it's a big shame. Some of these counties are overdeveloped. How many times are they going to build roads after roads? Why can't they be Kenyan, patriotic and bequeath those funds to areas which have no resources? it is very sad," he said.
Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen asked the speaker to intervene on the tribal lines by the senators.
"I'm in order to request you Mr speaker to give firm and clear direction and stop a Senator who may want to direct us to this conversation about tribes and just speak about what is devolution and what it means for our counties," he said.
"We are beginning to talk about our tribes, where our tribes live and what our tribes are getting...and we are contributing to the polarisation of the nation."
A section of senators backed a blend of Sakaja's proposal and his Meru counterpart Mithika Linturi's amendments as the only solution to the revenue sharing formula stalemate.
Linturi had proposed further amendments to the Sakaja's proposal which is currently before the Senate.
The Meru senator's amendments retain most of parameters in the Sakaja's formula but only seek to to reduce base from the proposed Sh316 billion to the new base of between Sh250 billion and Sh270 billion.
The team said any amount above the agreed base will be subjected to the Sakaja formula.