Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli has said that Kenyans need an urgent amendment to the constitution to reduce the burden they currently have.
Speaking to KTN, Atwoli says that the number of Members of Parliament should be reduced, as well as the number of counties. He says that instead of having special seats for women representatives, they should be elected competitively.
“This is the most expensive Constitution. If we can’t correct such anomalies as early as possible, we may have great problems in future. Some countries have audited the Constitution within three to five years when they realise the document is not working,” he said.
Atwoli attributes the government’s over borrowing to the big number of constitutional positions created, that it has to cater for.
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“The government is borrowing internationally and locally because it has created so many Constitutional officers who they have to be taken care of, some of them are useless,” says the veteran trade unionist.
Speaking on the same platform, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei defended Deputy President William Ruto who was initially opposing the referendum calls, but later changed tone and supported it.
“The DP was only against the referendum because of the disruption of the implementation of the Big Four Agenda,” said Cherargei.
The calls for referendum started with NASA leader Raila Odinga and Thirdway Alliance party leader Ekuru Aukot, who want the constitution to be amended to reduce the public burden.
Mr Odinga on his side proposes a radical constitutional changes to create a three-tier system of government.
The third structure provincial would be a bridge between the national and county governments to ensure a seamless relationship between the two and equitable development across the country.
“My proposal is that we adopt a three-tier system that retains the current counties, creates regional governments and retains the national government and with a very clear formula for revenue sharing,” Raila told delegates to the Fifth Devolution Conference in Kakamega in April.
On his side, Aukot suggests a reduction of the number of legislators from the current 416 to 194. He also suggests that each of the 47 counties be used as a single constituency unit for purposes of Parliamentary elections to the Senate and National Assembly.
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