Kenyans will have to wait a little longer to know the fate of the election bill tabled in parliament by Kiminini Mp Chris Wamalwa. This is after a motion to change the election date flopped after Members of Parliament failed to raise the required numbers.
The Bill proposed that the date be changed from the first Tuesday of August to the third Monday of December.
The bid to change the election date failed after only 187 MPs turned up in the House, which is below the required number of 233.
If the Bill had been passed into law, current MPs would have had their terms increased by 4.5 months and Kenyan taxpayers would have had to fund an extra Ksh.1.2 billion to keep the 416 lawmakers in office.
Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa presented the Bill to Parliament in March this year arguing that the current election date in August affects the country’s school calendar.
Mr Wamalwa argues that the August date was unduly disrupting the education calendar and the conduction of national examination in case of either a fresh election or a run off or an invalidation of a Presidential election.
“The principal objective of the Bill is to amend Articles 101 (1), 136 (2) (a), 177 (1) (a) and 180 (1) of the Constitution of Kenya by changing the existing date for the general election for members of Parliament, the President, member of County Assembly, and the county governors and deputy county governors from second Tuesday of August in every fifth year to third Monday in December in every fifth year,” reads the Bill. “The amendments seek to restore the tourism high season and the aspirations of a section of Kenya who are not able to get out of their busy schedules to take part in the general elections at their places of preferences,” adds the Bill. In the last General Election, presidential election protracted until October 26 after the Supreme Court invalidated President Uhuru Kenyatta’s reelection forcing a fresh poll.
The Constitution of Kenya (Amendments) (No. 2) Bill, 2018 by Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa was the latest bid by lawmakers to return general elections date to the “more favourable” December.