PROPOSAL TO DIVIDE THIKA TOWN CONSTITUENCY INTO THREE

I will pen this down in very simple terms.

Some leaders have gone public to suggest that the NG-CDF should be allocated per the size of the population of a constituency and maintained that constituencies with high population should NOT be split to form new constituencies.

Well, the Bridging Bridges Initiative (BBI) had this as one of it’s major agenda but it was rejected. This was further appealed in court and it was still thrown out.

As much as I agree in consideration of allocating funds, as Hon. Isaac Mwaura once put it, ‘according to the number of people who will eat not according to the size of the plate, 'splitting of the constituency is of paramount importance in order to bring closer leadership to the people.

People's representation is not about titles or positions but doing what is prudent. If you want the NG-CDF funds of Sh.140m per year to be multiplied by three, there is the multiplier effect of multiplying the leaders by three so that there is representation in the grassroots. Division of labour will help in spreading risks thus mitigating wastage of public funds and resources.

By having two more constituencies in Thika, hence two more members of parliament, there will be healthy competition within these constituencies thus benefiting the mwananchi, rather than when one MP is given the whole kitty of (140million X3) = Sh. 420 million per year. God forbid if that one MP happens to be corrupt, almost all the monies will be misappropriated and of course the loser will be the mwananchi and the government of the day.

Adding funding to a constituency that has grown in terms of population and not adding leaders (in this case MPs) is like a school that has grown in terms of student population, funds are added but the numbers of teachers remain the same. At the end the children suffer, teachers are strained with high student teacher ratio and the general performance of the school is poor.

CONCLUSION

Let us embrace subdivision of the highly populated constituencies through the IEBC as Hon. Simon Kihara had presented in September 2022. Instead of calling them super constituencies because of high population, let us split them and call them super because of how fabulous they shall be with super leaders. 

Thank you.

Dr. Julia M. Wanyoike

Economist/Environment & Constituency Enthusiast.

CC: National Planning and Treasury

IEBC

The National Assembly

Kiambu County

H.E. Dr. William S. Ruto.