NAIROBI, Kenya, May 14 – The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) secretariat has said the push to amend the constitution through a popular initiative is not over yet, vowing to file an appeal in court next week following the nullification of the process by the High Court.
The secretariat’s co-secretaries Junet Mohammed (Suna East MP) and former Dagoreti MP Dennis Waweru said they were setting up a legal team to appeal the ruling.
“We will fight to the very end for that Bill to be realized,” they said, “we will appeal the decision next week.”
The five-judge bench of Joel Ngugi, George Odunga, Jairus Ngaah, Teresia Matheka and Chacha Mwita among other declarations, noted that President Uhuru Kenyatta had violated the Constitution when he initiated the process which it said could only be done by Parliament or the citizens through a popular initiative.
“The judges stabbed the president who is not the promoter of the bill and did not prohibit promoters from pursuing Constitutional Amendment. We assure Kenyans that we shall continue to promote BBI until it is ratified by Kenyans,” Junet said.
While noting that the secretariat respected the decision of the court, he linked the ruling to a siege of a section of the judiciary by a section of political leaders and the civil society.
“We note the celebrations of politicians and civil society operators who have dismissed BBI from the word go, they are determined to ignore fact that 4 million Kenyans signed the bill,” Junet said.
In their ruling, the judges ruled Thursday that anyone can institute a civil application against the president for violating the Constitution when he initiated the process of amending the Constitution because he acted outside his mandate.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta violated Article 131 (2) (c) of The Constitution of Kenya. He has failed to respect, uphold and safeguard the Constitution. He has failed the leadership and integrity test under Article 73 (1) (a). The entire BBI Bill is an invalid and void exercise,” the court ruled.
