Kitui Senator takes his demand for Mwingi county to the senate

Kitui county may see more benefits coming to her way through the Building Bridges Constitutional ammendment initiative, if the demands made by Kitui senator Enoch Wambua during his presentations to the senate's joint Justice and Legal affairs committee on BBI bill are considered.

In his presentation, Mr. Wambua pointed out to the committee that Kitui county is one of the largest counties in Kenya with a land mass area of 30, 496 square Kilometers and a population of over 1.2 million people. He also pointed out that Mwingi district failed to be made a county based on technicalities, and yet other smaller districts with small population were made counties.

Based on these and many other reasons, the Kitui senator told the committee that Mwingi qualified to be made a county through the BBI process as this was among the various demands which the residents of Kitui had made during public participation of the document.

The senator argued that  Kitui county was quite expansive and service delivery proofed hard with all major operation coming from Kitui town headquarters, hence establishment of Mwingi county would bring services closer to the people.

Also the senator express his disappointment with the manner in which the 70 proposed constituencies under BBI had been share, claiming that Kitui was larger than five neighboring counties  which benefited, the likes of; Machakos, Makueni, Embu, Tharaka Nithi and Kirinyaga. 

He therefore demanded that Kitui county be allocated at least 2 new constituencies to achieve fairness, while at the same time calling for proper criteria to be used in increasing representation through increase in constituencies. 

Senator Wambua also requested that the lower eastern headquarters to be move from Embu to Machakos in order to serve the three Ukambani counties from a central point, and ease residents the burden of having to travel all the way to Embu for services.

Finally the senator lauded President Uhuru Kenyatta for establishing to more sub counties in Kitui that is; Thagicu in Tharaka and Mutitu. He however called upon the relevant government department to issue the two new sub counties with their independent codes in order to enable them execute their mandates without having to rely on other sub counties.  

However, Mr. Wambua points out that a lot of lobbying for the demands he made is required and called upon all Kitui elected leaders to rally behind him so that together they may actualize the long awaited dream of making Mwingi a county. 

Story Compiled by: Mwingi times Reporter