News From Parliament

‘Igunga cannot be divided now’

THE Minister of State, Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Coordination and Parliament), Mr William Lukuvi.

THE Igunga Member of Parliament has demanded that his large constituence by split into two in order to ease representation, enhance efficiency and bring servicers closer to the people.

Dr Dalaly Kafumu, told the National Assembly here on Thursday that Igunga, with an estimated population of over 500,000 residents, was too big to handle. He suggested that a new constituency is a must in order to improve services to the people. He wanted to know if there was any possibility of splitting the constituency after the 2012 Population Census results.

Responding, the Minister of State, Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Coordination and Parliament), Mr William Lukuvi, ruled out any such possibility, citing the high costs involved in the exercise. However, Mr Lukuvi said that members of the public are free to give their views in the proposed new Constitution on the kind of representations they want.

“I believe there are so many areas that require to be reviewed in the current elections procedures. Some of Mps are proposing for the abolition of bye elections and many other issues. “But we can’t do that right now because we are already in the process of acquiring new constitution, which I believe, will clearly address these shortcomings,” Lukuvi told the House.

However, Mr Lukuvi further noted that the National Electral Commission (NEC) received 53 applications to split constituencies in the country, out of which, Lukuvi said, only 42 met the requirements of being divided, which included Igunga. However, he said NEC could not split the constituency because of the limited space in the House, which was caused by the increase of Special Seats MPs from 75 to 102. He said NEC only managed to split only seven constituencies out of 42 that had met the requirements.