Deputy President William Ruto was not among today’s speakers at the launch of signatures collection for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) drive ahead of a referendum next year.
ODM leader Raila Odinga was the one who invited President Uhuru Kenyatta to make his address at the ceremony.
By Tuesday evening, it was not clear whether Dr Ruto, who has been pushing for certain amendments to the BBI report, would attend the launch.
It is now all systems go for the referendum as President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga preside over the launch of signatures collection at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre today (Wednesday).
The electoral agency had already issued an approved format for the collection of the signatures by the promoters of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill 2020, signalling a roadmap to the plebiscite.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati on Tuesday wrote to the co-chairpersons of the BBI secretariat – Junet Mohammed and Dennis Waweru — and enclosed the commission’s approved template for the collection of at least 1 million signatures.
“To enable the voter verification process and to ensure completeness of the supporters’ records, all the fields in the same approved template should be duly filed as provided,” Mr Chebukati wrote.
It includes the name, ID or passport number, county, constituency, ward, polling station, mobile number, email address and signature or thumb print.
The BBI secretariat says they will collect between 4 and 5 million signatures even though one million signatures would be enough to allow IEBC to send the Bill to the county assemblies.
Mr Mohammed and Mr Waweru said the Bill being unveiled today will mark the start of the collection of signatures expected to take one week.
