President Uhuru Kenyatta has criticised the Judiciary for nullying the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) process.
According to Kenyatta, the High Court’s decision to invalidate the initiative denied Kenyans the constitutional change they wanted.
Speaking in the National Assembly during the 8th State of the Nation Address and his last as Head of State maintained that due process was followed to ensure that the BBI process was a popular initiative, however, a few individuals decided otherwise.
“We wanted a constitutional amendment that was clear and certain. This did not happen. Had this amendment been adopted, counties would have received Sh562 billion instead of the Sh316.5 billion allocated to them in the 2020/21 Budget,” he said.
“The people of Kenya wanted a Constitutional change, but a few individuals sat down in a backroom and decided otherwise.”
Kenyatta said Kenyans spoke in one voice in regard to the first amendment of the Constitution.
“We went to the people and 5 million Kenyans agreed to initiate the process of putting to the vote the First Amendment to the 2010 constitution. The First Amendment was, thereafter taken to the County Assemblies, where it received nearly unanimous endorsement. In Parliament, the People’s Elected Representatives gave the First Amendment a clear nod of approval by a margin in excess of two-thirds,” he said.
In dismissing the constitutional amendment, the President said Kenyans missed an opportunity to increase the minimum county allocations from the current 15 per cent to 35 per cent.
Further, the President said that the handshake enhanced political stability.
He said all the gains in the last 4 years would have been nothing with stability saying, “If every five years toxic political climate and election-time tensions would reverse the gains painfully secured, our impressive development record of accomplishment would be an immense tower sadly built on sand not rock.”
“The need for political stabilisation is the doctrine that guided me to the path of a handshake with Raila Odinga,” he said.