President Uhuru Kenyatta and the ODM leader Raila Odinga are expected to officially launch the Building Bridges Initiative signature collection drive that will run for one week this Thursday.
Speaking after meeting with Minority and Majority leaders from the 47 County Assemblies in Nairobi said that the referendum exercise will be concluded by early 2021. He also assured the MCAs that their demands will be factored in after the referendum through administrative actions.
“On Thursday, me and the President will lead the country in launching the collection of signatures. We want it to be done as quickly as possible so that by latest end of next week we shall have concluded the exercise,”Raila said.
He said that after He told Ruto to brace for an epic political battle in the impending referendum, ruling out possibility of further amendments on the documents as demanded.
The ODM leader said a summarised version of the proposed constitutional amendments will be printed and distributed to all counties, constituencies and wards Kenyans to read ahead of the exercise.
“There will always be doubting Thomases in any process and that is why we said, if you disagree with it lets meet in the field,”said Raila.
It is reported that the launch will take place at KICC which will be attended by 300 people, the President, Raila and national leaders who will sign the signature booklets before they are taken to counties, constituencies and wards.signature collection will be spearheaded by a committee.
The Constitution requires promoters of a popular initiative to deliver a draft Bill and supporting signatures to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) then it will verify that the initiative is backed by at least one million registered voters.