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{
    "id": 1384909,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384909/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 875,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tetu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Geoffrey Wandeto",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to these two very important Statements. Allow me to start with the legislative proposal to amend Article 89 of the Constitution on delimitation of electoral units. Boundaries review is a very emotive exercise. On the face of it, it sounds like a straightforward exercise guided by numerical formulae. However, this is not true. The current boundaries have some historical realities which we can only ignore at our peril. If we start tinkering with them without giving it much thought, we can invite a lot of unintended consequences. For Example, Lamu East and Lamu West constituencies have been earmarked for scrapping. Lamu County has two constituencies. If we lose the two constituencies, its viability will be questionable. The administrative structures that exist will be whittled down and downgraded. Half of the NG-CDF which is allocated to Lamu County will disappear because it will have one constituency. This will aggravate marginalisation and poverty in such a place with a lot of challenges. I want you to think about the constituencies in the Northern Frontier. Many of their boundaries are based on certain ethnic and clan lines, which have worked very well for peace and development over the years. It is not in our interest to start tinkering with them because we may bring in an unfair political playing field, where the smaller sub-clans and tribes may feel that they are now at risk of being “swallowed” by the bigger clans. The outcome will be a resurgence of ethnic tensions and border skirmishes, which we keep seeing from time to time in this country. As Hon. Kaguchia has said, the people of Tetu have had uninterrupted representation for a long time. It is easy to think that they can forget their four, five or six decades of identity as Mukurweini, Tetu, Kieni or Ijara. You cannot scrap an identity that has been built for a long time and suddenly give them a new name. We are tinkering with something very important, which is social integration. It may take a very long time to again build consensus and make these people feel as one if we put them in the same constituency. Think about places like the North Rift and parts of northern Kenya, especially North Eastern, which is sparsely populated and faces myriads of problems including poor road networks, low school enrolment and insecurity. While a Member of Parliament from Nairobi can tour his constituency in a number of hours, some of our brothers and sisters in the North Rift and North Eastern take days to move around their constituencies. Merging these constituencies such that these Members have a bigger area to superintend over will make their work harder and they will have to work long hours to achieve the smallest gains. As I conclude, constituencies have over the years become an important economic, social and cultural identifier of the people. Any changes to the status quo must be the outcome The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
}