Nairobi — Acrimony and name calling marred a public hearing in Nakuru by the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission.

Tension was high for the better part of the morning as residents of Rift Valley Province differed sharply while proposing ways to create new administrative boundaries.

Assistant Minister Mwangi Kiunjuri was heckled when he said that some constituencies had similar physical features and should be harmonised to address population imbalance.

His views that Kuresoi constituency had similar features with Baringo East, with a population of 90,000 registered voters and 19,000 respectively, drew the wrath of majority of the participants.

Efforts by the chairman of the commission, Mr Andrew Ligale to cool tempers at Old Town Hall fell on deaf ears as a man was restrained from attacking the Laikipia East MP. It took the intervention of Nakuru Town MP Lee Kinyanjui and his Chepalungu counterpart Isaac Ruto to bring back sanity.

Hybrid system

However, majority of the Rift Valley MPs were in agreement that additional constituencies should be established to pave way for equitable distribution of resources and representation in Parliament. A memorandum read by Mr Ruto proposed that 29 more constituencies/districts be created to match the region's population and area.

He recommended that a constitutional amendment be made to provide for a hybrid system -- one man one vote and one man one kilometre -- to ensure that the region has 28.6 per cent of constituencies in Kenya.

"As a province at independence Rift Valley had 13 out of 41 districts which reasonably represented a fair share based on its land mass and population which both equals 31.7 per cent but this has been significantly distorted under the current distribution to 23.6 per cent (60 out of 254 districts) instead of 81," said Mr Ruto.

Sengwer, a minority group in the Rift Valley wants to be given a district or a constituency so that they can have representation in Parliament. Speaking after presenting their memorandum to the commission, the community's representatives said it had been neglected by the government for many years.