A proposal to change the election date from August to December has flopped after Members of Parliament failed to raise the required numbers.
The bill, sponsored by Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa, proposed that the date be moved from the first Tuesday of August to the third Monday of December.
On Wednesday, only 187 MPs were present in the House, 46 short of the 233 required for a vote to be conducted.
If the motion sailed through, current members of the National Assembly and Senate would have had their terms extended by 4.5 months. Kenyan taxpayers would also have been required to cough an extra Sh1.2 billion to keep the 416 MPs in office.
Terms of the President, Deputy President, Governors and Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) would also have been prolonged by a similar period.
Wamalwa tabled the Bill in Parliament in March arguing that the current date disrupts the country’s school calendar, among other reasons.
“The amendment is to ensure that the date of elections reflects the unique circumstances and traditions of Kenya.The current date for the General Election unduly disrupts the education calendar and, most importantly, the national examinations in case of either a fresh or run-off or invalidation of a Presidential election.”
“Also, the tradition of reading the budget concurrently in East Africa has been disrupted by the current election date,” the Bill reads.
