NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 2- Mandera County Assembly on Tuesday joined 42 other Counties that have passed the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Constitutional Amendment Bill after unanimously voting in its support.
MCAs said their decision was arrived after carrying out comprehensive public participation as required for them to represent the will of the people.
Governor Ali Roba hailed the MCAs for passing the Bill and reiterated that his county is fully behind the Bill and President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga who are on the frontline championing for its approval.
“Nobody should ever imagine that Mandera people were wavering at all. We are solidly behind BBI, President Uhuru Kenyatta and former PM Raila Odinga,” Roba said.
So far only 3 Counties; Baringo, Nandi and Elgeyo Marakwet have rejected the Bill.
Only Uasin Gishu county is yet to vote on the Bill.
The Bill has already attained the 24 counties required, or half of the 47 counties for it to be presented to both Houses of Parliament for consideration before it is subjected to a national referendum.
National Assembly Majority Leader Amos Kimunya on Thursday said Parliament will adopt the Bill by March 31 to pave way for a referendum.
Speaking to Capital FM News, Kimunya said that the House will start considering the Bill after receiving resolutions of county assemblies that have approved the proposed amendments.
“We shall be having the usual House Business Committee where we shall review the progress in terms of what we would have received and when we reach the threshold of the 24 counties, we will be good to go,” Kimunya said.
“Then we will allocate the time on modalities of when the Bill will be introduced but we will be happy to finish with it by the end of March.”
The Bill which proposes the expansion of the National Executive by adding the Office of the Prime Minister and two deputies among other changes was borne out of a March 2018 truce between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Odinga which ended hostilities sparked by the latter’s rejection of the 2017 presidential election outcome.