WRITTEN BY CYPRIAN NYAMWAMU :NYC LET US GET SERIOUS ON REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE

When it comes to wild proposals, I see them on NYC. Are we serious in the proposals we are making or we are putting anything forward for the sake of it? The boundaries commission should wait until the COE finalizes its work. We can not have the COE adopt what the Boundaries commission wants because it is the duty of COE to offer the basis for a system of the representation of the people. The way forward is to maintain the current 210 constituencies as holding areas as Kenya goes for a Proportionate representative electoral system (PR). This is how the system shall work a) Kenya SHALL BE SEEN as one huge electoral constituency b) Each political party shall publish a list of vetted and competent Kenyans it wants Kenyans to elect to parliament as their MPs. Each of these people who shall be published by the Parties must be cleared by the KACC, the AG, and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights as Kenyans who have not been involved in Human rights violations, are not violent, have not been involved in corruption and economic crimes scandals or have not been involved in inciting ethnic tensions or have not been involved in spreading hate language. c) Once each party lodges its Party list with the IEC, the IEC shall declare the date of the election d) Kenyans shall vote for a political party through out the country. Ballot papers shall only have a political party symbol not individuals e) Votes shall be counted and tallied at each of the nearly 27,000 polling stations and tallied nationally through an electronic system. f) Each party’s votes shall be tallied and for every 35,000 votes a political Party receives it shall win a sit in the National assembly g) Once each Party has known how many MPs it has, the party list shall be followed in the order the list was published and the IEC shall gazette all the duly elected MPs. h) Looking at which party won the highest number of votes in a certain constituency, Political parties shall be asked to post an MP to that constituency provided no MP shall be posted to her/his original electoral constituency. For instance even if Safina garners the highest number of votes in Bomachoge constituency, Cyprian Nyamwamu SHALL NOT be posted to Bomachoge as the MP. Safina shall be required to post Cyprian Nyamwamu to say Mandera Central if Safina also garners the highest number of votes there. This is important for six reasons § Ukabila and clannism shall be brought to an end since the MP who shall serve that constituency shall be impartial and level headed but also seriously held to account and to exposed to thorough scrutiny so that s/he does not misuse the resources allocated to the constituency. § to end the violence that is associated with a man or woman fighting to be the MP of a certain constituency, since all politicians shall be struggling to ensure their party wins as many Kenyan votes as possible § The voice and power of women, professionals, pastoralists, minority communities, the youth and other disadvantaged groups shall count because it is only those parties that include these categories in the Party list. This is how to end violence, voter bribery § This system will make Kenyans realize that politicians do not own Kenya but instead it is Kenyans who have the responsibility to built and belong to democratic and serious political parties. § The current curse of certain families and tycoons controlling political parties and collecting bribes from individuals by selling tickets to these rich men and women shall come to an end. § The party lists shall be vetted and approved by the Party National Conventions with the assistance of the IEC upon receiving proposals and rationalized drafts from the Party NEC. i) The balance of MPs over and above 210 shall be Members of Parliament without physical constituency but representing other national non regional constituencies such as the youth, women, workers, persons with Disabilities etc j) The election of MPs, councilors and Chairpersons and Mayors of local government authority shall be held in August of the election year while the election of the President (if under a presidential system of government) shall be held in December of the election year. k) Kenyans shall be encouraged to vote where they work and stay instead of registering and voting in their so called home constituencies because Kenya shall now be one large electoral constituency. This is important to ensure that urban areas get to elect MPs and councilors and mayors who are endorsed by the urban resident. We need to bring to an end the shameful system of imported ethnic voters from western Kenya , Central province, Nyanza and Ukambani currently in operation. We also need to end the current foolish system where urban dwellers run to their native villages to vote for MPs who never represent rural voters while the MPs who represent them in Nairobi are elected by imported voters. l) In the case of a parliamentary system of government, the Prime Minister, being the leader of the Party with majority seats in Parliament (obviously the Party that won the highest number of votes and confidence from among Kenyans) must enjoy more than 50+1 percent of the MPs in parliament failure to which, that party shall be asked to form a coalition government to ensure that the legislative business of government is executed. m) In the case of a presidential system of government, none of the MPs shall be a member of the cabinet. If the President appoints an MP to cabinet, such a Member of Parliament shall immediately resign and his or her replacement automatically picked from the Party list that was submitted to the IEC. n) Under this system, there shall be no by-election. Once a vacancy occurs in Parliament, the Party in which the vacancy occurs shall automatically fill the vacancy from the Party list supplied to the IEC. This is important to avoid acrimonious and often wasteful by elections as we know them in Kenya today. This is the system that shall serve both the current ethnic campaigners in central province as well as secure the interests of the dishonest politicians from the arid and semi arid regions. It is shameful that people who claim to be national leaders including ministers in the current illegitimate Grand coalition government can be involved in ethnic campaigns that divide the nation further instead of campaigning for more representative, more inclusive and simple system that shall promote national cohesion and diversity of representation in Parliament. To restore democracy in Kenya , we have to fundamentally transform the system of representation. Ensuring that the interests of all Kenyans are represented is the more important than the system of government. Once Kenyan fixes its system of representation as proposed here above, all the other issues including the system of devolution, land and the system of government shall be ease to fix. We have to remember at all times that democracy is about representation of interests. Cyprian Orina Nyamwamu NCEC P4C Safina.