The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Secretariat has announced that it will challenge the Court of Appeal’s verdict at the Supreme Court.
BBI secretariat co-chairpersons Junet Mohamed and Denis Waweru said that they shall support the appeal of the Attorney General at the Supreme Court on BBI.
They said that they believe that the Supreme Court has a wider and more encompassing mandate when dealing with matters of great national interest.
“we are determined to ensure that some of the very noble proposals in the BBI are not lost and if they have to be lost it must be known that we made our best efforts to secure them,” they said.
The AG, Kihara Kariuki, indicated that he will move to the Supreme Court to determine three issues, key among them being the applicability of the basic structure doctrine.
The AG will also be seeking clarification on the remit of a constitutional amendment by popular initiative and presidential immunity.
On the question of presidential immunity, the AG holds that the president was insulated from prosecution during his tenure, and that the judges contradicted the constitutional provisions on presidential immunity.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the BBI bill was unconstitutional, illegal null and void.
The judgment, in which the second-highest court was heavily critical of President Kenyatta and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), stated that the BBI Bill was unconstitutional and usurped the people’s sovereign power.
The seven-judge bench also issued a permanent injunction restraining the IEBC from processing the Bill or subjecting it to a referendum. The Bill had already been approved by parliament.
The judges also upheld the High Court’s finding that the President has no authority to promote amendment of the Constitution through a popular Initiative and that he can be sued with respect to his actions or omissions in the Constitution.