Ekuru Aukot’s Punguza Mizigo Bill Flops as it Fails to Meet Legal Threshold

Thirdway Alliance party leader Ekuru Aukot’s Punguza Mizigo Bill is officially dead after it failed to garner the support of the minimum 24 counties to proceed for debate in the National Assembly and Senate.

By Thursday, 31 out of 47 county assemblies had rejected the bill on various grounds among them, that it is unrealistic and retrogressive.

Kajiado, Nyandarua, Kilifi, Trans Nzoia, Garissa, Nandi, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kericho, Kisumu, Meru, Tana River, and Busia became the latest counties to shoot down the bill.

Among other suggestions, Aukot’s bill proposed to reduce the number of MPs from 349 to 147 and the president’s term to a seven-year nonrenewable term.

Other counties that shot down the bill include Nairobi, Kiambu, Siaya, Nakuru, Murang’a, Kakamega, Kisii, Kirinyaga, Nyamira, Makueni, Nyeri, Mandera, Lamu, and Homa Bay.

To succeed, the bill needed to get the backing of at least 24 county assemblies but only Uasin Gishu County has so far voted in favor of the initiative.

Other assemblies that rejected the initiative said it was populist and sought to erode gains made by the 2010 Constitution.

Aukot has accused senior political leaders in the country of frustrating the bill and buying MCAs to reject the initiative.

“It is not being rejected by the general public but by a choreographed plan by a few selfish leaders in some political parties. We are getting reports from county assemblies that money is being dished out for them to shoot down the Bill,” Aukot said during an interview on Tuesday.