Elders and professionals from Ijara in Garissa county have threatened to trek to Nairobi on December 13 in protests to force President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga to have the constituency split in the BBI proposals.
Ijara is one of the six constituencies in Garissa county. The BBI has proposed to have an additional 70 constituencies distributed across 28 counties based on population quota.
Garissa is not among the counties that will benefit.
And the elders and professionals are not happy.
They said Ijara has surpassed the population variable for it to be split. The constituency has 270,000 people according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics census of 2019.
Speaking to reporters in Garissa town on Sunday, the elders led by Kenya Livestock Marketing Council chairman Dubat Amey and Ahmed Duale said they have decided to go the trekking route to show their seriousness.
It is about 370km from Garissa to Nairobi. Normally a five-hour drive, it could take the elders days or even weeks if they have to trek.
“Sometimes it takes one to endure pain and suffering to get what he or she wants. In our case, we have decided that we will start our journey of trekking from Masalani on December 13 to Nairobi and present our humble request to the two handshake principals,” Amey said.
Duale said Ijara constituency has met and surpassed the threshold required for it to be split.
“Ijara has remained one constituency from 1963. Going by the latest statistics, it is much bigger in terms of numbers than Tana River, Lamu and Isiolo counties. We don't know why Ijara has never been,” Duale said.
He added, “During the 2010 constitution review and the delimitation of boundaries by IEBC, we made a proposal of an extra constituency but for reasons not known to us, we were left out. We have constituencies with smaller populations and so we feel it is time we are seriously considered.”
The BBI consideration of population quota did not look at particular constituencies but rather the counties. So for a county like Garissa with a population of 841 353 and an area of 44, 753 square kilometres, the quota comes to about 19 people per square kilometre.
Even Kitui county with a population quota 0f 37 did not get an extra constituency in the BBI proposal.
On Friday, local leaders led by Garissa Governor Ali Korane said they would rather lobby from within than opposing the BBI altogether for the failure to get an extra constituency.
Speaking at the Government Guest House when he received BBI signature collection booklets from the subcounties, the leaders said that they will continue engaging President Kenyatta and Raila saying ‘it’s never too late' to include their views.
Korane said they will continue pushing for hiving off of Hulugho as a constituency out of Ijara constituency because it meets all the requirements.
Korane said ‘it would not go down well if leaders from Northeastern oppose the BBI after Garissa Senator Yussuf Haji was given the honour of chairing the BBI task force."
“We have had faith all along with the process because our elder and Senator Yussuf Haji was chairing the task force. It will not be good for us leaders to turn our backs on a process we have all along believed in,” Korane said.
Garissa county assembly speaker Ibrahim Abass urged MCAs to critically look at the BBI referendum bill when presented to them before passing it.