Remarks by some politicians that one kilometer should be equal to one vote are not only ludicrous but ignoble too. In elementary law and political science classes, the professors teach that democracy is the rule of the majority with the consent of the minority. This is the very tenet of competitive politics as practiced in democratic societies. Republican constitutions embrace this principle through the principle of universal suffrage. In Federal democracies, like the USA and Nigeria, every federate state is represented in the Senate by two senators but the population of registered voters determines the relative strength of each state in the selection of the Chief Executive of the country.
These simple basics seem to elude some politicians and members of 4th Estate. The issue of equal or proportional representation is hinged on the state's authority to collect revenue and the mandate to guarantee territorial integrity and provide security and other basic necessities to citizens. And what constitutes a state; territory, citizens/people and a functioning government. Under contemporary international law a mass of land devoid of human habitation is considered as politically dead. This is why, uninhabited, unclaimed or ungoverned territories like the the political dead zone near the center of the Arctic sea are the focus of competing territorial claims between the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark.
Politics is about influence. Successful politics is power, and power is fundamentally about economics and money; who has what and what goes where. States obtain money through taxation authorized by a legitimate legislative authority. Law is essentially about the power relations between the rulers and the ruled. Elected representatives make laws and determine these relationships as well as codes and tariff rates payable to the state. Proportional representation is therefore premised on the state's legitimacy to make laws and the ability to raise tax revenue from the citizens; whether human or corporate. This was the basis of the famous pronouncement by the founders of the USA that, "no taxation without representation".
It follows logically that equal and proportional representation must at all times reflect either the majority will of the human citizenry or the economic might of the corporate citizenry of any given state. This is why in all countries today large community groups and corporate bodies hold sway over legislation and other affairs of the state.
The people of Nyanza, Western and Mount Kenya regions should not request anybody for more constituencies. It is their inalienable right to be properly and fairly represented in parliament where laws regarding collection and distribution of state resources are made. At the moment they are under-represented and every person with elementary education knows this. Those who suggest that every kilometer should be equated with one vote are jokers, kilometers do not pay tax; people do and hence the adage; one man one vote! Holding large swathes of barren, idle and unexploited territory should have little or no influence on the affairs of any civilized state unless that territory holds invaluable economic resources or the potential for economic exploitation by and for the benefit of the controlling state. This is basically why no single country is fighting to control or represent the Sahara ! Even the territory the POLISARIO is fighting for in Western Sahara is often described as economically useless, heavily mined and almost uninhabited to justify the apparent disinterest by the international community to resolve the long-standing conflict between the Saharawi and Morocco. Consequently, anybody who advocates for the highly populated constituencies of Kenya to remain under-represented should also campaign for residents of these regions to be freed from paying some taxes.
