In a dramatic turn-around former Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri wants the next government to hold a referendum within a 100 days in office, saying he will seek to re-introduce goodies contained in the BBI document.
Even though Kiunjuri was in a group of tanga tanga politicians allied to Deputy President William Ruto who vehemently opposed the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) that provided for referendum this year, he is now calling for it.
Kiunjuri who is the leader of The Service Party (TSP) leader said any presidential hopeful seeking support from the vote rich Mt Kenya region must assure a referendum in first 100 days of his/her admiration.
Speaking during a burial ceremony in Siakago village, Mbeere North, Kiunjuri said that Mt Kenya region will only receive a fair share of national cake, if constitution is amended.
The TSP leaders says he will seek to re-introduce some important clauses which were contained in the Constitution Amendment Bill 2020 (popularly known as BBI), which include equal representation, equitable sharing of the national cake among other clauses.
“We cannot have one man one shilling one vote if we don’t have a referendum. So we want whoever want our support to guarantee us that in the first 100 days, we will have a referendum. This should be an irreducible minimum for Mt Kenya region,” said Kiunjuri.
With about 8 million votes, the mountain region was set to benefit with additional constituencies and increased allocation of funds if proposals by the constitution amendment bill 2020 had sailed through..
Kiunjuri wants all presidential hopeful to lay bare how their administration will improve the lives of the vote rich region of Mt Kenya, and the strategy they intend to apply turn around the economy.
“Mt Kenya region is an agricultural zone, we want presidential hopefuls to assure us that they will honor the Malabo declaration, and set aside 10% of the national budget for agriculture. We are signatories to this declaration, and so it should be honored.” said Kiunjuri.
He says he will present TSP’s irreducible minimum’s memorandum to all aspirants, and will only support the one who means good the region.
Ruto led a group of Mt Kenya politicians popularly known as tanga tanga to oppose the BBI, but after the process was halted by the Supreme Court, they have turned back and are now saying the document had important goodies for Mt Kenya region that needs to be secured.
