Opposition leader Raila Odinga vouched for constitutional renewal in his speech at the sixth annual Devolution Conference on Wednesday.
This he did, by talking about the need for a different system of government.
Odinga described some of the counties under the current devolution system as incompetent due to population size and other related factors hence the need to form regional governments, which he said would be more economically viable.
“One of the facts we’re dealing with but hardly acknowledge is that a number of our counties as they are today are too tiny to compete and to marshal internal and external resources for development,” he said.
He posed that said some of the counties would do better if they were to be grouped into bigger entities.
“The creation of regional blocs is a logical response to dealing with the problem of economies of scale in enhancing the potential for development of counties. Council of Governors should robustly consider and debate the need to formalize regionalism,” he said.
“Formalization of regionalism will not necessarily mean dismantling the counties as they are today. We have such a system in the US and some African countries and therefore nobody should stifle this debate for fear of change or merely political expedience,” he added.