NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 30 – More than 1.5 million Kenyans had endorsed the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Bill by Monday, with more expected to sign before the end of the week.
The initiative’s Joint Secreries former MP Dennis Waweru and Suna East MP Junet Mohammed said they expected it to hit 2 million by Monday night.
“We therefore, project that we shall be done with the exercise by end of the week and move to the next step,” they said in a statement.
The Constitution requires such initiative to have an endorsement of at least one million signatures from registered voters, which must be verified and approved by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
“Making the country’s constitution is a patriotic duty and not a political campaign. Therefore, we would want to once more emphasize that no citizen should be left behind,” the officials said.
The initiative has received overwhelming support from leaders across the country, who have been rallying Kenyans to endorse it.
Deputy President William Ruto who has been leading a brigade opposed to the constitutional amendment has softened his stance, and lauded changes in the final Bill and has lately intensified calls for more consensus to avoid a divisive referendum.
“It is never too late to do the right thing. Tremendous progress achieved. Consensus on the remaining issues and process so as to have a non-divisive vote is the best option,” Ruto tweeted in response to a newspaper headline that said he had been cornered.
Since the launch of the BBI signature collection last week, the DP has been giving indications that he will not lead a NO campaign as many of his opponents thought even as his closest allies vowed to oppose the document.
Since Wednesday when the BBI Constitutional Amendment Bill 2020 was launched, Ruto has been tweeting in support of it, while highlighting what he described as major gains for the ordinary person, otherwise referred to his supporters as the hustler nation.
“Now working on consensus for Kenyans to have real choices to decide/vote while avoiding yes/no or all/nothing division,” he tweeted Saturday, maintaining the need for a non-contentious referendum.
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