A host of second-term serving governors will now have to go back to the drawing board should the Building Bridges Initiative report be adopted.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday received the report, which was drafted by a team picked up by him and opposition leader Raila Odinga.
A proposal forwarded by Raila's ODM to the BBI team on the creation of third-tier government was not included in the final report.
The position had been viewed as a soft landing for the second-term governors, who will not be eligible for re-election in 2022.
“The Bomas Draft divided Kenya into 14 regions, it is time to look at how to recover the original spirit. My proposal is we adopt a three-tier system,” Raila told a devolution conference in Kakamega last year.
In the proposals, BBI recommends that should there be regional blocks, they should be voluntary and not anchored in the law.
“Retain all the 47 counties but encourage and assist counties to form voluntary regional economic blocs,” reads part of the report.
“Perhaps there is a way that the 47 counties can be maintained as the focus of development implementation and the provision of services, while representation and legislation are undertaken in larger regional blocs.”
Among those who are serving their second term include James Ongwae, Okoth Obado, Mwangi Iria, Wycliffe Oparanya, Sospeter Ojamoong among others.
The team will now have to battle in national positions should they be willing to continue staying in competitive politics.