NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 31-Chief Justice Martha Koome has ruled that public participation was not properly done during the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) process, especially on the second schedule of the impugned Bill.
In her ruling, Koome however, noted that there was reasonable public participation during the BBI (1), but the same was not replicated in further amendments introduced in the BBI (2) which proposed to create 70 new constituencies, terming it unconstitutional.
“The transmission of the BBI Bill to the bicameral Parliament and the County Assemblies is evidence of public participation. There was reasonable public participation for the BBI bill except for the second schedule which was a late amendment,” she stated.
Koome further declared the Bill unconstitutional, for lack of popular participation and failure to comply with the Popular Initiative requirements under Art 257.
“The 2nd schedule of the amendment bill is unconstitutional, for lack of reasonable public participation” she ruled.
In her ruling, Koome also found that the President cannot initiate constitutional amendments through a popular initiative, as the route is reserved for the common mwananchi.
Koome argued that a popular initiative should be citizen-driven and a citizen-centered process thus excluding the state institutions and the President from initiating the process.
She noted that there is enough evidence that the president initiated the BBI process since state resources were used to advance the process.
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