Tuesday, December 1, 2020 – Deputy President William Ruto and his team, have moved to make the impending Building Bridges Initiative referendum even more difficult, after they suggested that each contentious issue be voted on separately.
They argue that to avoid throwing out the baby with the bathwater, voters should be allowed to cherry-pick so that popular proposals are not sacrificed while railroading an entire document with offensive clauses.
They want the referendum to be framed around numerous questions that voters will determine, a suggestion pro-Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) promoters flatly rejected, saying, it will be either a vote to uphold or reject the draft constitutional amendment Bill in its entirety.
“I have a constitutional duty to assist my boss, the President.”
“We’ve made improvements to BBI post-Bomas.”
“Now working on consensus for Kenyans to have real choices to decide/vote while avoiding yes/no/all/nothing division.”
“We avoided lose-lose, we can overcome win-lose to achieve win-win,” Ruto said on Saturday.
“It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
“Tremendous progress achieved.”
“Consensus on remaining issues and process so as to have non-divisive vote best option,” he added.
Similar sentiments were echoed by his allies, led by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, who insisted that whereas some positive amendments had been made to the Bill, others were not pro-Wanjiku, and it would flop should there be no consensus, he warned.
He argued that it’s not right to force Kenyans in a ‘Yes-No’ contest.
The framing of the referendum question, he said, should give Kenyans a chance to approve good clauses while rejecting the bad ones.
On his part, Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki, another Ruto ally, said the best way for the referendum is to vote on each issue.
“…there is no legislative requirement or guideline on whether we will have a single-vote referendum or a multiple question, clause-by-clause.”
“The details are to be determined by a referendum law, which we do not as a country have yet,” Prof Kindiki said.
E! News Blog
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