Thursday, July 8, 2021 – The BBI secretariat is now demanding the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to disobey High Court orders and start preparing for the BBI referendum without giving any excuses.
In a statement, the secretariat co-chair Junet Mohamed noted that the mandate of IEBC is to conduct elections, and should be on standby to conduct the referendum in case the Court of Appeal rules in favour of the BBI Bill on August 20.
According to him, they do not expect excuses of strict timelines by the commission since it has worked under such a condition before.
“We don’t want to hear stories that they cannot conduct a referendum and a General Election.”
“If they managed two presidential elections within two months, nothing stops them from conducting a referendum within a year to the elections,” said Suna East MP Junet Mohamed.
He argued that the BBI had already gotten a clean bill from Parliament, and what was remaining was President Uhuru Kenyatta’s assent.
Thereafter, IEBC has no choice but to facilitate the referendum before the 2022 General Election.
Article 89 of the Constitution requires any boundary review process highlighted in the BBI to take place 12 months before the General Election.
However, according to Dennis Waweru, who is also a member of the BBI secretariat, the amendment bill will sort that legal hurdle.
“We are still okay in terms of the timelines. The document has waived the one-year requirement for boundaries review so we can have the referendum and still review the boundaries before the next polls,” said Waweru.
Their contributions come after the IEBC announced August 9, 2022, as the official date of the next General Election.
During the ruling that stopped BBI, High Court had ordered IEBC not to touch on anything to do with BBI.
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