The fate of constituencies in Taita Taveta County hangs in the balance after the Court of Appeal threw out the proposed constitutional changes that sought to protect them from being scrapped.
The Constitutional (Amendment) Bill that was initiated through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) had proposed to protect 27 endangered constituencies that risked being scrapped for failing to meet the population threshold as required by law.
The constituencies that were allowed to exist despite not meeting the population criteria, now risk losing their status, if the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) conducts the delimitation exercise as required by law.
IEBC had announced that the exercise would start next month. According to the Constitution, the commission shall review the boundaries of constituencies at intervals of not less than eight years and not more than 12 years.
The law also states that the review should not be conducted 12 months before a general election. The last review was done in 2009 and IEBC is looking at the 2024 deadline to conclude the exercise.
According to the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census, Voi has a population of 111,831, Taveta 91,222, Mwatate 81,659, while Wundanyi population stands at 55,959 people.
In its Boundaries Rreview plan, IEBC increased the population quota from 133,000 in 2009 to 164,015.
The population quota was arrived at by dividing the national population of 47.5 million by the 290 constituencies.
This means that any constituency that does not meet the threshold will cease to exist after the commission concludes the boundaries review by March 2024.
Senator Jones Mwaruma, MPs Andrew Mwadime (Mwatate), Jones Mlolwa (Voi) vowed to save the constituencies from the risk of being merged or scrapped.
Speaking in Taveta, Senator Mwaruma said last week's verdict that scuttled the BBI referendum process has spelt doom to small constituencies in the country.
In Taita Taveta County, all its four constituencies risk being merged for falling below the constitutional population threshold. Voi, Wundanyi, Mwatate and Taveta constituencies which were in the red are among those expected to be reviewed.
"We will meet with leaders to deliberate on this matter because we want our constituencies to be maintained," the senator said.
The leaders said the merging of the constituencies will further marginalise the residents and asked residents to remain calm as they seek to resolve the problem.
Speaking separately in Mbololo, Mr Mlolwa said they will find a solution before the 2024 deadline even if it means changing sections of the law to stop the forthcoming boundary review.
"The MPs from these constituencies will meet to see whether we can change the law to save our areas. There's still hope that they can be maintained," he said.
MP Mwadime said the county has been marginalised for many years and left behind in terms of development.
He said it would be unfair to scrap the constituencies since issues that affect the local community's interests, historical and economic injustices will not be addressed amicably if the boundary changes are implemented.
"We were hoping that the Court of Appeal ruling will come out in favour of the BBI initiative but that did not happen. Scrapping of any of our constituencies would lead to further marginalisation of our residents," he said.
Mr Mwadime said it would affect the development of the area through the allocation of resources by the government.
The four constituencies bring to the county Sh400 million each annually through the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).
The constituencies also receive other funding through Uwezo Fund, Youth Fund and road projects through Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra)
"We cannot afford to have them merged because we will lose a lot in terms of development. Losing a constituency means losing resources from the national government and employment opportunities among other benefits," he said.
"We are planning for a meeting to get a way forward for this matter," he said.
