The Public Petitions Committee in a session chaired by Turbo MP, Hon. Janet Sitienei (Turbo) received a Petition by the Centre for Accountability, Reforms and Democracy on the delimitation of electoral boundaries of Constituencies and Wards.

An advocate for the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Mr. Tom Macharia, petitioned the National Assembly to compel the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to exercise its Constitutional mandate of review and delimitation of constituency and ward boundaries. He said this is to ensure that there is parity in terms of population and equitable distribution of resources and representation.

Article 89 requires that “The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission shall review the names and boundaries of Constituencies at intervals of not less than eight years and not more than 12 years.”

 “By the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, 27 constituencies currently do not qualify to be retained as Constituencies as they fall below the constitutional population quota threshold,” Mr. Macharia said.

The petitioner further said that the lack thereof of a properly constituted IEBC since the August 2020 General Elections, meant that the process whose deadline was in March this year was at risk of not being completed.

“Hon. Members, it is our prayer that the National Assembly engages the relevant authorities and stakeholders to take a more proactive role to ensure the review of the electoral units is carried out in a constitutionally compliant manner,” petitioned Mr. Macharia.