The Referendum Ekuru Aukot Wants Kenyans to Participate in

Dr Ekuru Aukot's Thirdway Alliance wants Kenyans to participate in a constitutional referendum to reduce the number of legislators in Parliament.

The party wrote to the electoral agency Chair Wafula Chebukati asking for a meeting to discuss its proposals for the referendum.

"Our party resolved to sponsor a constitutional referendum in order to amend the Constitution for Kenya through a popular initiative for the purposes of reducing the size of our Parliament," the party's deputy leader, Miruru Waweru, stated.

Waweru further stated they had collected views from the public and formed the opinion that most voters favoured a reduced Parliament to help lower the wage bill.

[caption caption="Members of parliament and Senate at the parliament gallery "][/caption]

In a campaign run by Aukot and his deputy on Twitter, the two argued that an annual expenditure of more than Sh30 Billion by Parliament was too expensive to maintain.

Aukot maintained that the House should have a maximum of 194 MPs and costs cut to Sh5 Billion annually.

They further proposed a formula to have a man and a woman elected from each of the 47 counties to the Senate and the National Assembly.

The party also suggested that the number of nominated legislators be reduced to six from the current 12 and only limited to the National Assembly.

Currently, there are 416 members in the House with 349 in the National Assembly and 67 in the Senate.

[caption caption="Thirdway Alliance leader Ekuru Aukot "][/caption]

Aukot also recommended that senators should be given veto powers unlike in the current case where the House plays second fiddle to the National Assembly.