The devil is in the details. That is Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi’s preliminary observations on the recently released BBI report.
He, however, said that for the most part, the report is good.
“By and large, the report is good and we support it.. but we say the devil is always in the details. So we have to read the report very keenly to see if there are any games in it,” Kiraitu said.
He said the CoG’s main interest was an increase in allocation to the counties.
“We are looking for a solution in the BBI… I’ve seen at least it will give double the allocation, which will allow us to do a lot of grassroots projects in Meru,” he said on Friday.
Kiraitu said the increased allocation is one of the reasons counties will support BBI.
The Building Bridges Initiative report proposes county allocation be raised from the current minimum of 15 per cent to 35 per cent.
According to the report, Chapter 11 on Devolved Governments should be amended by creating a County Ward Development Fund to be governed by statutes.
“Chapter 11 should be amended by increasing the resources to the counties from the current 15% to at least 35% of the last audited accounts and ensuring that the focus is on service delivery in the settled and serviced areas, including for people living near the furthest boundaries of each county,” read part of the report.
Kiraitu, however, is opposed to the proposal that governors and their deputies be of the opposite gender, saying there are other dynamics involved.
“A candidate always looks at the votes. If having a man as a running mate will make you have more votes than having a woman, then you go for a man anytime. We have to play politics with the rules of politics,” he said.
Though the 47 woman representative positions have been scrapped and replaced with an equal number in the Senate, a closer analysis of the report indicates a win compared to the current set-up.
If proposals contained in the 214-page document are passed, the country could attain the elusive two-thirds gender requirement.
The Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji-led team proposes the country elects 94 senators, with each county electing one man and one woman.
The report seeks to delete Article 98 1 (a), which pegged the number of senators to 47. The team further proposes the scrapping of the seats of the 16 members nominated by political parties.
In another step to cure the gender imbalance in the National Assembly, the team is recommending a 360-member House, where 290 will be elected by the people in the constituencies and another 70 will be filled by parties.
The additional 70 seats will be allocated on the strength of actual votes cast per county and will be distributed among youths, people with disabilities and women. The women have a chance of up to 35 out of the 70 additional seats.
This will push up their numbers in the bicameral Parliament as they also stand a chance to grab a number of the 290 constituency seats elected on a first-past-the-post basis.
Kiraitu also said tribe and politics are inseparable.
“Luos will always be there… Merus… so whether BBI says they are there or not, they will always be there,” he said.
Kiraitu said he hopes there will be a chance to make amendments to the BBI report.