ODM Raila Odinga on Friday received 5.2 million signatures collected countrywide to endorse the Buiding Bridges Initiative (BBI) as the exercise came to a close.
Speaking at Daraja House in Nairobi, Raila announced they will give the collected signatures to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for verification.
Raila urged IEBC to move with speed and verify the signatures to save time and pave way for a referendum.
Raila’s tuff Nyanza region led in the exercise with 893,792 signatures followed by Eastern region with 842,000 with Rift Valley coming third with 817,000 signatures despite opposition from politicians led by Deputy President William Ruto.
Central Kenya collected 793,135 signatures, Coast 745,033, Nairobi managed 506,048 signatures, Western 487,978 with North Eastern region collecting 161,000.
BBI secretariat co-chair and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed told Deputy President William Ruto to stop confusing Kenyans with his calls for multiple choices saying it was impossible.
He said according to the referendum bill before the National Assembly’s legal committee there is no bill for multiple choices in the referendum, but a bill to be voted on.
“The referendum bill we know is the one before the House legal committee not what other people are talking about,” he said.
Mathira was leading with signatures collected in Nyeri despite claims that they don’t support BBI.
“When referendum comes, you will know Mt Kenya region is behind the Handshake and will vote for the bill,” he added.
The law requires only one million signatures even though the BBI project has garnered more than five million.
Most of people discrediting the initiative appeared before the task force and gave their views.
[This story is being updated]
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