Nairobi, Kenya Nov 29 – Linda Katiba Movement, a civil society group comprised of political leaders and activists has accused President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM Party Leader Raila Odinga of personalizing the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) process.
NARC-Kenya Party Leader Martha Karua, who is a member of the group, has faulted President Kenyatta and his handshake partner Raila of deviating from the initial course of “healing the country from the divisions caused by the election fiasco” to what she described as an “attempt to overthrow the 2010 Constitution”.
“The usurpation of the people’s constitution amendment pathway by the state is therefore unconstitutional,” she said on Sunday.
The former Justice minister accused the top leaders of duping Kenyans to believe that the BBI process would be people-centered.
“The 2010 constitution of Kenya provides for only two processes of initiating its amendment namely popular and parliamentary. A state-led initiative can only be initiated through Parliament which is one arm of government while a popular initiative as the name denotes is a people’s process,” she said.
Karua, who has been opposed to the clamor to amend the 2010 Constitution through the BBI process, said it was unconstitutional that Uhuru and Raila are using state machinery and resources to expedite the process of amending the Constitution.
“We know that the chiefs and the provincial administrators are being used not only to drum up support for this unconstitutional process but also to collect signatures. It is important that all Kenyans including the state officials know that they are being roped into doing something unconstitutional,” she said.
Activist and economist David Ndii noted that the BBI amendment initiative process is the culmination of a counter-reformist agenda that aims at clawing back the gains achieved thus far with the help of the 2010 constitution.
Activist Boniface Mwangi on his part vowed to rally Kenyans in opposing the document ahead of next year’s scheduled referendum.