The judges of the supreme court yesterday retreated to decide the fate of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) after three-days of hearing submissions on the proposal to change the country’s constitution.
The Attorney-General and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) used their last chance yesterday to persuade the judges that BBI was within the law and that the results of 50 by election conducted between 2018 and September 2021 risk being declared illegal.
The Judges did not give a date for the judgement but said they would issue a notice once ready
The decision will give a fresh twist for the campaigns if they decide to uphold the high court’s decision that the initiative was null and void; it will be a big boost for the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
The party has continually instigated the initiative only seeks to benefit a certain group of people thus going against their main agenda of Bottom-up.
However, if the apex of judges over turns high court judgement it will be a big win for the Orange Democratic Movement who were initially pro- BBI.
According to the ODM party the initiative is expected to generally improve governance and prevent future post-election violence like that of the aftermath of the 2017 elections.
In May of 2021, the five-judge bench struck down the proposed amendment, declaring that the president does not have authority under the Constitution [of 2010] to initiate changes to the Constitution, and that a constitutional amendment can only be initiated by Parliament through a Parliamentary initiative under article 256 or through Popular Initiative under Article 257 of the Constitution.”
In other words, an amendment must emerge from the ordinary citizen and not the president, as required by the basic structure doctrine.
Importantly, the judicial decision and subsequent struck reactions from the Kenyan political class, civil society, and institutional actors appeared to shed light on the changing political environment within the country as well as the continuing strengthening of democratic institutions, especially at the national level.
Civil society groups continued their onslaught against the BBI with a plea to the Supreme Court to stop political greed of creating positions through constitutional amendments.
Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri), Kituo Cha Sheria and several activists urged the apex court to seal BBI’s fate by upholding the Court of Appeal decision that declared the constitutional amendment process illegal, null and void.
John Khaminwa, who was representing the civil society groups, argued that BBI was a bad product of greedy politicians who only think of changing the Constitution to create positions for themselves.
The lawyers concluded that it will be absurd for the Supreme Court to overlook the illegalities committed by President Uhuru Kenyatta in his involvement in the BBI process and overturn the Court of Appeal decision.
