Wednesday, January 27, 2021 – The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has approved 1.14 million signatures in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) bill.
This is out of the 4.2 million signatures submitted by the BBI secretariat team on December 10, 2020.
In a notice dated Tuesday, January 26, IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati affirmed that the initiative surpassed the threshold needed to proceed to the next stage.
“The Commission, through interim verification of data captured as of 19th January 2021, has confirmed and is satisfied that the Initiative has been supported by 1,140,845 registered voters."
“This is, therefore, to notify you that the Initiative has met the requisite threshold as provided in Article 257 (4) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010,” read part of the statement
The Bill seeking to amend the constitution will be forwarded to the speakers of the 47 county assemblies for debate within three months from the date of submission by IEBC.
The county speakers will then submit the decisions of the county assemblies to the Speakers of the National Assembly and Senate.
For the Bill to proceed to a referendum, it must be passed by at least 24 County Assemblies.
The BBI task force had initially slated the timelines for the BBI process, revealing that County Assemblies would submit their decisions by February 19, 2021.
This would set the pace for the referendum to be held between April 6 and June 6.
The move by Chebukati deflates Deputy President William Ruto completely as he can no longer stop the BBI train.
E! News Blog
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