Referendum: BBI enters next round

The electoral agency has cleared the draft BBI (Constitutional Amendment) Bill 2020 after confirming that over one million voters support the initiative.

The chairman of the The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Wafula Chebukati on Tuesday wrote to the speakers of all the 47 county assemblies to table the draft bill. 

The Bill must be approved by at least 24 county assembly for it to move to the next round.

Mr Dennis Waweru, the co-chairperson of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Secretariat, said seeks to have a referendum conducted as soon as possible.

"With the clearance from IEBC we now have a short time to have the BBI Referendum Bill tabled in all the 47 county assemblies in order to have a referendum conducted as soon as possible," Mr Waweru said.

“The verification exercise confirmed that the initiative has been supported by 1,140,845 registered voters. This is therefore to notify stakeholders and the general public that the initiative has met the requisite threshold as provided in Article 257 (4) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010,” Mr Chebukati said in a statement to newsrooms.

He said the commission will continue to verify the remaining supporters’ details and a final report shall be shared with stakeholders and the general public.

If more than 24 county assemblies pass the Bill, it will be introduced to the Senate and the National Assembly.

“A Bill to amend this Constitution shall not be called for second reading in either House within ninety days after the first reading of the Bill in that House,” the Constitution says.

This means the least time Parliament can take is 90 days, assuming all the other process are cramped into one day after the immovable deadline between the first and second readings.

The Constitution does not say how long Parliament should take, after passing the Bill, to pass it on to the President, or then how long the President shall take once that Bill is on his desk.
It also does not state the period for introduction of a draft Bill in Parliament upon approval by county assemblies. 

Once the President passes his message to the IEBC to hold a referendum on the receipt of the Bill from Parliament, the commission has 90 days within which to hold a referendum.

ODM leader Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta have dismissed calls for multiple-question referendum.

“Our opponents never supported BBI from the beginning. Now they are talking of multiple questions and putting it together with elections.”

“We now have six ballots, a seventh one for referendum with many questions will be cumbersome for Kenyans especially the illiterate voters,” Mr Odinga said when he met university student leaders at Serena Hotel on Tuesday.