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"content": "In fact, Members of the Senate are best placed because we have seen even in this House in the last Senate that a lot of petitions were brought to this Floor by Senators conveying messages from the people they represent. One such petition was the one from your County of Kisumu, which was brought by Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’ Nyong’o. We prosecuted this petition to the fullest, including summoning the then Governor, his Deputy, and his Cabinet to appear before the Committee on Finance and Budget not less than five times. So, nobody has a better interest in pursuing the interests of the county than the Senator elected to do so. Of course, the Governor is provided for; and if a Governor can bring a petition, why not the Senator? We are elected more or less on the same platform, within the same jurisdiction and, sometimes, on the same ticket. Madam Temporary Speaker, I also want to point out Clause 25, where I had mentioned earlier that the role of IEBC should be expanded. That is one entry point where it is important that whenever boundaries are adjusted, the IEBC must have a say because they will have to administer the outcome. Madam Temporary Speaker, there is something that ought to be in this Bill. It is not that it will happen soon, but I strongly believe that this country deserves fewer counties than we have. You may recall, for those who were in Bomas of Kenya, that the original Bomas Draft provided for 16 regions; they were then not called counties. The consensus in Bomas was very good for this country. Regions were bigger with better populations and would have more meaningful regional Parliaments. At that time, the general consensus in Bomas was that we have Central, Western, Nyanza, and North Eastern provinces as they were then, divided into two. The Rift Valley and Eastern provinces were to be divided into three while Nairobi was to remain one. The people of the Coast all opted to remain one; and we really lauded them for that. That brought the country to 16 regions. With 16 regions, we would be having very strong regional parliaments. Right now, the transition we have is still from councilors to MCAs; and we are yet to wean ourselves off the mentality as it was then. So, Madam Temporary Speaker, I would want the proponent of this Bill not to anticipate anything. But I want him to make a provision where it is possible for a Commission to be set up by a radical President to seek views of Kenyans to reduce counties from the current 47, which number as we all know was arbitrary and arrived at just to stop an unhelpful argument from continuing. That is how we agreed that anything that was a district by 1992 becomes a county. That is why we have very small counties like Tharaka-Nithi vis-à-vis a huge one next to it like Meru. If Meru was ever to be divided into two, its boundaries and that of Tharaka- Nithi would not be where they are. That is how Bomet, having been hived off Kericho, qualified to become a county, yet in terms of demography and size, it was much smaller and probably would not have qualified. There are many others. If we were to go back to that, I can assure you that counties will be more meaningful and vibrant economies. This is because in economic terms, the bigger, the more successful and better. You imagine the county of Kisumu County, if it was now radiating on more than half of the former Nyanza Province. It would be a lot better. Combining the economy of Uasin Gishu, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Nandi and probably, West Pokot, would make a lot more The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}