The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) secretariat on Wednesday slammed the door on last-minute changes proposed by Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto when it announced plans to present signatures endorsing the drive to the electoral agency for verification today (Thursday).
The decision provoked furious reactions from the team leading Uhuru-Ruto talks to reach a consensus.
BBI secretariat co-chairmen Junet Mohamed (National Assembly Minority Whip) and former Dagoretti South Dennis Waweru said the initial verification of the signatures was complete, adding that the booklets would be presented to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) together with bill as launched on November 25.
“There shall be no changes to the bill by way of addition or subtraction. There is agreement on that,” Mr Waweru said at the secretariat headquarters in Nairobi.
There are efforts by the Dr Ruto team to have a discussion with representatives from Mr Kenyatta’s side with the aim of reaching a deal that could have meant fresh collection of signatures.
The Ruto team wants the plebiscite held in form of a multiple-choice ballot in order to afford voters a chance to shoot down some proposals while endorsing others, as opposed to the “Yes” or “No” route that requires one to endorse or reject the BBI document in totality.
“There are busybodies claiming to have 12, 13 member committees. The secretariat is not aware and not party to anything like that. We have a bill,” Mr Mohamed told reporters.
“We have 5.2 million signatures. We have a date with the IEBC. We have a date with the county assemblies. We have a date with the people of Kenya. That is our position.”
ODM was also reportedly pushing for some of the proposed 70 constituencies to go to its strongholds and for parties to be allowed to nominate members.
But politicians leading the Uhuru-Ruto faction talks, still held on to the hope of a breakthrough, arguing that the discussions are above the level of the people spearheading the signature drive.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, an ally of the DP, said their demands must be met.
“Our demands are unchanged. We want fine-tuning of some proposals, including the return of the 47 woman representatives and a multiple-choice referendum,” Mr Cherargei said.
Murang’a Senator Irungu Kang’ata, who represents the President’s faction, said the ongoing talks are premised on the signatures or other legislative actions.
“Some of the issues raised can even be met through legislation or other means. We are still doing research. We will give our reply to their demands soon. Nothing has changed as afar as trying to reach a deal is concerned,” Mr Kang’ata told the Nation yesterday.
But Mr Mohammed said the idea that there could be endless discussions on the bill is erroneous and should come to an end.
“This process must move forward. Kenyans cannot be held to ransom on BBI. For those saying we need to talk, I ask: ‘How long are we going to talk?’ We have been talking for two years. If we take the route you are proposing, we will have no time to move on with the other processes,” Mr Mohamed said.
The secretariat also rejected the DP’s call for a multiple-choice referendum, saying Kenyans will vote on a bill “and not a school examination”.
“Voters are not being sent back to an exam room. BBI has 78 issues. We cannot have 78 questions. Kenyans will vote on the Bill,” said Mr Mohamed.
The team said it has weeded out up to 1.4 million signatures out of the 5.2 million collected due to errors and inconsistencies.
“After verification, we will take about 3.8 or four million signatures to the IEBC,” Mr Waweru said.
The BBI secretariat said it will present the booklets in soft and hard copies to ease the poll agency’s job.
“We want IEBC to take the shortest time possible verifying the signatures,” Mr Waweru said.
