Court stops counties from debating Punguza Mizigo Bill

Thirdway Alliance Party Leader Dr Ekuru Aukot (centre) and Embu Speaker Josiah Thiriku (left) the County Assembly of Embu where Aukot explained to an open forum of MCAs and members of the public the proposal to amend the Constitution through The ‘Punguza Mizigo’ Constitutional Amendment Bill. July 30, 2019. [Joseph Muchiri, Standard]

Thirdway Alliance Party’s push for constitutional changes suffered a major blow after the High Court stopped county assemblies from debating Punguza Mizigo draft Bill.

Justice James Makau also stopped the Dr Ekuru Aukot-led party from presenting the proposals to speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi for debate pending determination of two suits challenging the process.

“I am satisfied that the applicants have raised valid concerns about the initiative and hereby issue an order stopping the 47 county assemblies from debating or approving the bill pending determination of the suit,” ruled Makau.

The two petitions were separately filed by David Ngari and the International Economic Law Centre while the second was filed by activist Timothy Odhiambo.

Their main argument is that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission made a mistake in approving the 1.2 million signatures supporting the initiative without verification to confirm if indeed they were genuine.

They are also contesting composition of the electoral body, arguing that the IEBC as currently constituted lacks competence and technical capacity to admit, process and approve the proposed bill as presented by Thirdway Alliance.

“IEBC has unconstitutionally, illegally and irregularly approved and presented to counties the Punguza Mizigo Bill when it did not have the capacity to verify the signatures and undertake public participation to confirm with members of the public if they support the initiative,” they said.

The Punguza Mizigo Constitutional Amendment Bill seeks to reduce the number of MPs from the current 416 to 147 and the President’s term from the current two five-year terms to a single seven-year term.

It also proposes an increase to county revenue share allocation from the current 15 per cent to at least 35 per cent and replace the Constituency Development Fund with Ward Development Fund.

Dr Aukot is seeking the approval of at least 24 county assemblies for the Bill before it is forwarded to the National Assembly and Senate. If it fails to get Parliament’s approval, the Bill will be submitted to a referendum.

However, Mr Odhiambo argued that the process of approving the bill was unconstitutional since IEBC Chairman Wafuka Chebukati admitted that they did not verify the authenticity of the signatures of individuals who signed the petition

“The admitted failure by IEBC to verify the signatures was a fundamental error which makes the Punguza Mizigo initiative illegal. County assemblies will be subjected to consider a flawed Bill and wastage of public resources which can be stopped before it is late,” he said.

They accused the IEBC of working is secrecy to hide crucial information and for publishing the names of individuals who supported the initiative in their website without their knowledge.

According to the petitioners, it will be wastage of public resources if the draft proposals are subjected to a referendum only for the court to nullify the entire process on account of illegalities in obtaining the signatures