The campaign to popularise the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2020, will not wait for the electoral body to complete the signature verification, but will begin in January 2021, according to the national secretariat of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
The tentative schedule developed by the secretariat shows public activities to popularise the bill, which continues to draw varied views, has been set to commence on January 4, with town hall meetings across the country.
“We are rolling out our campaign programme from January 4, 2021. For now we are opting for town hall meetings since we cannot hold huge public rallies because of Covid-19 rules,” the co-chairman of the national secretariat, Mr Junet Mohamed told the Sunday Nation.
The secretariat is also working on the campaign messaging around the slogan ‘Kenya moja’, he added.
The promoters of the referendum bill submitted it to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), plus the 4.2 million signatures of registered voters supporting it on Thursday. However, it is not known when the commission will start verifying the signatures after chairman Wafula Chebukati said the exercise will only start once the National Treasury has given out money.
“Our team, the referendum committee, which will undertake the signature verification, is ready. But of course we shall not commence until we get a budget from the National Treasury,” Mr Chebukati said on Thursday as he led the commission to receive the signatures and the bill from the BBI national secretariat.
The secretariat is working on the campaign plans as court cases against the referendum drive pile up. There were eight cases at the Supreme Court and the High Court by the end of this week.
It is at the High Court where there are many cases, either calling out the process of coming up with the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2020, or the contents therein. The petitions are by Linda Katiba Movement, a lobby of political leaders, professionals and activists including economist David Ndii, activist Boniface Mwangi, Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua and Jerotich Seii, Thirdway Alliance, 254Hope, the Kenya National Union of Nurses, Mr James Gitau for the Kenyans in diaspora, and activists Justus Juma and Isaac Ogola.
The other co-chair of the BBI national secretariat Dennis Waweru says the efforts mean very little to the process.
“We are aware of the cases and we know where they are coming from. It is the same people who have been opposed to BBI all along and now they have realised it is unstoppable after we got over five million signatures. In their desperation, they have now resorted to attempting to use the courts to try and derail the process,” said Mr Waweru.
“As a secretariat, we are focused on the task ahead. We cannot spend all our time preoccupied with what the detractors of BBI are saying or doing. The final decision is with the people at the referendum and we are confident of overwhelming support at the referendum,” he added.
Lawyer Paul Mwangi, who was a joint secretary to the BBI committee and who is now defending the BBI against some of the court challenges, says they are mentally prepared for more cases.
“The court has become the new battlefront because they have realised that there is little they can do to stop the BBI at the county assemblies or parliament. So they would want to make sure that BBI does not proceed to the referendum by using the courts,” he said.
On the campaign plans, Mr Mohamed told the Sunday Nation that the secretariat has already designed the campaign slogan, ‘Kenya Moja’, around which all the BBI campaigns will be centred.
“We are now working on our campaign timelines. We plan to have as many as 50 town hall events every week in every part of the country as we wait for IEBC to complete their work. Hopefully, IEBC should be able to finish the verification by end of January,” said Mr Mohamed.
President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday gave a preview of messaging that will likely be around the ‘Kenya Moja’ slogan in his address during the Jamhuri Day national celebrations at the Nyayo Stadium.
“Our national spirit had been wounded and we were afraid of repeating the 2007 post-election violence. But, in running away from one crisis, we created another. And now is the moment to correct this and make a shift from a constitution of fear to a constitution of hope, a constitution that ensures our nation remains stable; and therefore, attractive to both local and foreign investors,” the President said.
He enumerated the benefits that would come from the BBI process, including inclusivity, justice, and strengthening of devolution among others.
“The handshake was necessary as a first step to national healing and constitutional alignment. BBI was construed as the possible next step towards reinforcing our nationhood. And once we accomplish the necessary and the possible, then the impossible effortlessly becomes our reality,” the President said.
It has been reported that the President is taking lead in the campaigns, including leading negotiations behind the scenes to achieve as much consensus as possible before the referendum.
As a number of voices have come up to oppose the constitutional amendment initiative including through court challenges, the concern has been whether the BBI will get the backing of the minimum 24 county assemblies out of 47 to advance the referendum push. A referendum through popular initiative requires that at least 24 out of the 47 county assemblies support the bill before it is taken to the two houses of Parliament.
However, Mr Mohamed says that getting the 24 county assemblies is no longer an issue.
“There are 35 county assemblies we are confident they are on our side. Some of them have written to us committing to pass the Bill,” he said.
If IEBC is satisfied with the 4.2 million signatures that were collected in support of the BBI constitutional amendment bill, the commission is required to submit it to the 47 county assemblies which have three months to consider it.
The bill if supported by a majority of the counties will head to the two Houses of Parliament where MPs will also require just a simple majority to pass it. It is then that the bill will go back to the IEBC for the formulation of a referendum question and the vote.
