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PHOTO: Okoa Kenya leaders during referendum campaign.

OKOA KENYA CAMPAIGN TO INCLUDE MCAs’ DEMANDS

By Maritim Kipngetich

The campaign to amend the constitution by the members of the opposition has gained momentum with the team leader, Raila Odinga, including some other issues which are likely to draw the support of the Members of the County Assemblies. Though the Okoa Kenya leaders have reduced the issues to be amended in the constitution to be three from the initial five, the issues are seen to be revolving around devolution. The amendments of the key clauses in the constitution which talks about devolution have been seen by the Jubilee affiliates as a strategic scheme which the opposition wants to use to destabilize the Jubilee Government.

Yesterday, a huge throng of the Okoa Kenya supporters together with their leaders had a meeting in Nairobi which the main guests for the day were the MCAs drawn from various parts of the country. The MCAs have been complaining that they are not treated like the Members of Parliament. They said they should enjoy the privileges which the MPs are enjoying which include the car grand, the mileage charges in their cars, the house grand and the sitting allowances.  Early this year, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission increased the salaries and allowances for the MCAs.

The recent wrangles among the leaders of Makueni County, which left the body guards of the leaders who were present including the county sergeant-at-arm wounded, made the MCAs to ask the government to give them guns and hire them body guards. Following heated exchanges among MCAs in their County Assemblies during the debates, the commentaries had a feeling that the MCAs may use the guns to shoot one another.

PHOTO: Cord leaders briefing the journalists in Nairobi.

It is, therefore, likely for the opposition to include the demand for guns by MCAs in their Okoa Kenya agenda. The opposition needs to gain the support of the counties in order for their mission of amending the constitution to succeed.

The constitution provides that, for a constitution to be amended a million signatures must be collected from all parts of the country and more than 24 counties should support that move. The opposition, therefore, has seen it prudent to include the demands of the MCAs in order to gain the support of many counties across the country, but no one knows whether all the MCAs can win the people in their wards to vote yes during the referendum.

So far, the Okoa Kenya initiative claims to have collected more than one million signatures out five million which they are targeting to collect by the end of the year.