The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has cleared the way for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Bill to move to the county assemblies after ascertaining that the process was supported by at least one million registered voters as required by law.
IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati, in a letter to all 47 county assembly speakers dated January 26, 2021, said the signature verification exercise revealed that the initiative was supported by 1,140,845 registered voters.
This was out of the over 4.4. million signatures that the BBI Secretariat presented to the commission on December 10, 2020.
“The Commission, through interim verification of data captured as of 19th January 2021, has confirmed and is satisfied that the Initiative has been supported by 1,140,845 registered voters. This is therefore to notify you that the Initiative has met the requisite threshold as provided in Article 257 (4) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010,” read the letter to the 47 speakers.
“Pursuant to Article 257 (5) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, the Commission hereby submits a copy of the draft BBI (Constitutional Amendment) Bill 2020, to your County Assembly for consideration within three months from the date hereof.”
Chebukati further added: “In conformity with Article 257(6) you are required to submit the decisions of your County Assembly to the Speakers of the National Assembly and the Senate within three months from the date of this letter.”
The BBI Secretariat has since expressed gratitude to the commission for verifying the signatures which were presented last year. saying it marks a great milestone for the process.
“With the clearance from IEBC we now have a short time to have the BBI Referendum Bill tabled in all the 47 county assemblies in order to have a referendum conducted as soon as possible. The secretariat will soon be giving more directions with regard to the process,” read a statement from Dennis Waweru, Co-Chair BBI Secretariat.
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