Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi on Thursday notified the lawmakers that he has received a public petition that seeks to increase the MPs term to six years as opposed to the current five years.
The petition presented by one Ezekiah Njeru Namu seeks for an amendment of the Constitution to allow for equitable representation of the electorate and gender parity in Parliament.
According to the Speaker, Mr Namu wants the legislators to reduce the President's term in office from the current five years to four years.
He further wants the Senators term increased to seven years.
[caption caption="File image of President Uhuru Kenyatta"]
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The petitioner also wants the abolishment of academic qualification as a requirement for candidates seeking elective posts.
Additionally, Mr Namu wants the National Assembly to increase the number of constituencies from the current 290 to 300.
He has therefore asked Parliament to amend section 89 on the delimitation of Constituencies and increase the area of representation.
Namu also wants the National Assembly to amend section 98 of the Constitution to do away with Senate nominations for women.
He also wants to do away with nominations based on gender in the County Assemblies while allowing the Assemblies to use local dialects in their deliberations.
Muturi referred the petition to the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee to look into the requests and present its report and recommendations to the House within 60 days.
To implement some of the proposals in Namu's petition, the country would be required to go for a referendum.
[caption caption="File image of a section of Senators during a past press briefing"]
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