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IEBC objects move to create new Constituencies, terms BBI proposal as Unconstitutional

IEBC has criticized the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) proposal to create 70 new constituencies. IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati termed the proposal to allocate new constituencies as unconstitutional.
Chebukati made those comments while appearing before a parliamentary Justice and legal Affairs Committee on Wednesday, where he complained that he was not consulted, yet the constitution empowered his commission to distribute new constituencies. 
“The Bill can propose constituencies to be created, but not to determine which county the constituencies are created, that’s our mandate, and if the Bill is passed as it is, then it will be unconstitutional,” Chebukati stated.
Chebukati further took issue with the six-month time frame given to them by the BBI committee to create new constituencies. He stated that it wasn’t possible to do delimitation of additional constituencies within the specified time, arguing that the process was emotive.
“Delimitation of boundaries is always emotive, and allocating six months to finish the process is practically impossible, dispute resolution alone took 4 months last time the process was being undertaken, and we have to consider public participation,” Chebukati told the parliamentary committee.
IEBC and Kenya National Bureau of Statistics openly differed during the session as it emerged that there was no official data with regard to populations per constituencies. KNBS DG Macdonald George Obutho accused IEBC over its failure to provide the essential map as per every ward to enable them finish the validation process.

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