End of Road: Court of Appeal Trashes BBI Reggae as Null and Void

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It is a painful night for promoters of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) after the Court of Appeal poured cold water on the entire process to amend the constitution.

A seven-panel bench has declared the BBI reggae illegal, irregular, unconstitutional, null and void.

The judges, Daniel Musinga, Fatuma Sichale, Gatembu Kairu, Hannah Okwengu, Roselyn Nambuye, Patrick Kiage and Francis Tuiyott, agreed with the High Court that push to amend the law bypassed many constitutional requirements.

Except for Tuiyott, the others unanimously ruled that President Uhuru Kenyatta cannot initiate or promote such a process because he is not an ordinary citizen.

Although Suna East MP Junet Mohamed had claimed he was the promoter of BBI together with former Dagoretti MP Dennis Waweru, the court he was legally bound to campaigns for the constitutional changes through the popular initiative.

The justices were divided on whether the electoral commission was properly constituted to verify the BBI signatures, but a majority argued that the agency did not have enough commissioners to carry out the process.

The court also ruled that the President can be sued in his individual capacity for violating the constitution he swore to protect.

In regard to the approval of the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill, 2020, by county assemblies, Justice Kiage said the MCAs were bribed by the Executive to vote in support.

He said the ward representatives did not conduct public participating because the President promised them car grants.

ODM leader Raila Odinga, who together with the Head of State initiated BBI, has welcome the verdict that has been read for the better part of the day.

He revealed that he would not appeal, as that would be time wasting.

“We have to move on,” he said in a statement.

The post End of Road: Court of Appeal Trashes BBI Reggae as Null and Void appeared first on LitKenya.

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