Uhuru, Raila to lead BBI rallies ahead of referendum
Members of the BBI secretariat, led by co-chairmen Dennis Waweru and Junet Mohamed, address Journalists in Nairobi on February 24, 2021.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga will take full control of the nationwide campaigns for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) scheduled to begin next week.
The promoters of the initiative have planned nationwide rallies beginning March 1 to drum up support for the drive after it secured a record approval of 40 county assemblies that approved the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
BBI Secretariat co-chairmen Junet Mohamed and Dennis Waweru on Wednesday announced that the team will now hit the road to campaign for the document ahead of the forthcoming referendum.
Mr Mohamed said they will set up 10 teams to be headed by senior leaders under the command of President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga to campaign in each region in a bid to ensure the approval of the document by Kenyans at the referendum.
“We have a plan to roll out a national campaign from March 1 next week, which is going to cover all parts of the country. We are going to have 10 teams camp in every corner of this country. Every team is going to be headed by a senior leader with his team of around 10 Members of Parliament and 10 leaders from other sectors of leadership to go and tell Kenyans in the villages what is good for them and why they should support the document at the referendum,” Mr Mohamed said.
40 county assemblies
Mr Waweru said that they have so far secured support of 40 county assemblies.
“We now have 40 assemblies that have endorsed this Bill. There are six which have also conducted public participation and will debate it,” Mr Waweru said.
National Assembly Majority Leader Amos Kimunya said the two Houses of Parliament have already started the process of ensuring it sails through once tabled.
“We already have a technical team appointed by the two Speakers that is receiving the certificates from the speakers of the county assemblies and, once they receive 24 certificates, the Bill will be introduced in the House and we are confident MPs will approve it and then we head straight to the referendum,” said Mr Kimunya.
