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Civil society groups from Wajir County have threatened to shoot down the constitutional amendment bill over what they termed as discrimination especially in the proposed 70 additional constituencies.
Particularly drawn from Wajir South constituency, the groups Nothern Pastoralists Association, Hoko faulted the formula applied in distributing the new constituencies saying Wajir South deserves to be split because of its vast size.
They said Wajir South is about 23,000 square kilometers hence larger than Central, Nairobi, and western regions combined and hence it has surpassed the required threshold for it to be split.
“ We are going to shoot down this bill. There is no way we will continue to be marginalized when we deserve a new constituency,” said chair, Northern Pastoralists Association Abdirahman Mohammed.
Mohammed pleaded with parliament to reject the delineation of 70 proposed new constituencies as proposed by bill and revert the responsibility to Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ( IEBC) saying it has the mandate to undertake boundaries review.
“ The total enumerated Wajir south population is 290,948. This means that Wajir south constituency meets, passes and exceeds the criteria of population quota of 132,123 as a constituency thus deserves to be delimited,” he added.
Mohammed said the last time the constituency was split was in 1948 when Wajir District then was split into South and North.
North has since been split 4 times yet south remains a single Constituency namely, Wajir east, Wajir west, Tarbaj and Eldas constituencies.
“ President Kenyatta is aware of the plight of the people of the Northern Kenya a region that covers 60 percent of the Kenyan land mass and he should utilize all the resources at his disposal to ensure that Northern Kenya residents are not going to continue to be marginalized,” added Mohammed.
In the new proposal, Rift-valley will get 23 constituencies, Nairobi 12, Central 11 and coast 10.
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