Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria has urged Kenyans to sign up for the ‘Punguza Mzigo, Punda Amechoka’ referendum campaign aimed at slashing the number of governors, senators and MPs.
According to Mr Kuria, the only way to reduce the rising wage bill is by slashing the number of MPs, governors and senators and by also scrapping out some seats.
The vocal lawmaker said that over 500,000 signatures have been collected since the exercise was launched late last year.
Mr Kuria said the signature collection is being conducted in every constituency, and urged Kenyans to sign for the campaign.
“Kenyans should come out in large numbers and sign for the ‘Punguza Mzigo’ campaign to enable us effect changes in the constitution that will save taxpayers huge amounts of money,” he said.
He said that once the signatures are collected, they will be taken to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for verification.
He said that they are aiming to collect 1 million signatures before the end of this month and present them to IEBC.
Mr Kuria at the same time said the campaign is not associated with the Okoa Kenya campaign being spearheaded by the opposition.
“Some people are claiming that Punguza Mzigo is similar to Okoa Kenya which is not the case, our campaign is independent and different,” he told journalists after attending a church service at Mwiteria Methodist Church in Meru on Sunday.
The MP through the campaign seeks to reduce the number of governors from 47 to 16, the number of MPs from 349 to 200.
He is also proposing the scraping of the senate and women representative seats.
Mr Kuria argues that there is over representation and duplication of duties among the senate, the national assembly and the county assembly.
He says that taxpayers will be saved from huge taxes if the proposed changes are effected through a referendum.