It is difficult to change constituency boundaries for one-man-one-vote

By MUNGAI KIHANYA

The Sunday Nation

Nairobi,

23 June 2024

Several readers have pointed out to me that the “One-Man” campaign is not just about the distribution of money; it is also about fair representation of people. Hence the second part of the slogan is “One-Man-One Vote”. The campaigners claim that the densely populated regions do not have equal representation in parliament since their MPs represent more people. Thus, they are seeking an increment in the number of constituencies in these regions or greater weight in their votes in parliament.

One of the proposals that I made during the constitution making process, was to change the way we determine the number of constituencies: to use the population instead of having a fixed number. This was not accepted and so, Article 89(1) reads: “There shall be two hundred and ninety constituencies for the purposes of the election of the members of the National Assembly…”.

Having a fixed number makes it difficult to review boundaries. If the number of constituencies is increased in one region, they must be reduced in another. Of course, such a move would generate a lot of opposition from areas losing their numbers.

 My view is that, like in the distribution of money, both population and land area are important considerations when deciding on number of constituencies. It is difficult for one MP to reach, say, 300,000 citizens in a densely populated urban area. Similarly, it is also tough for one to get to 30,000 people spread over, say 20,000 square kilometres.

For these reasons, I proposed that we put a constitutional limit on the number of inhabitants in each constituency to 100,000. Then we use the national population to determine the number of constituencies in the country. With this formula and going by the 2019 census result, we would be having 476 constituencies.

Once this number is established, the next step is to determine the maximum size of a constituency. We find this by dividing the country’s total area (582,646 square kilometres) by 476 and then multiplying the result by two. The answer is 2,448 sq.km.

Thus, the IEBC should make constituency boundaries to make sure that none has more than 100,000 inhabitants and none sits on an area greater than 2,448sq.km. That way, both concerns about population and area are taken care of. As it is, my proposal was not accepted; consequently, we shall have to go through the lengthy process of constitutional amendment every time we wish to change the number of constituencies.