•Malala said that the bill will be rejected if forwarded to county assemblies in its current form.
Image: FILE
The Thirdway Alliance has been asked to subject its Punguza Mizigo referendum bill to wider consultations to increase its success chances before being forwarded to cunty assemblies.
Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala on Tuesday said the formulation of the bill was not consultative.
“If the bill goes to county assemblies in its current form, it will be rejected and the idea dies. But we don’t want it to die because other constitutional amendment initiatives could build on it,” Malala told the Star on the phone.
He said that the initiative had already made a step, particularly by raising more than one million signatures required for the next step. The Thirdway Alliance collected 1.2 million signatures which the IEBC last week said were verified.
Malala said that was a big step already compared to starting all over again.
Election Observer Group on Monday claimed many of the signatures collected by the alliance were not authentic.
The group's national co-ordinator Mulle Musau said that the verification of signatures was not transparent.
The Building Bridges Initiative, initiated after the March 9, 2018 handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition chief Raila Odinga, is collecting public views with the aim of having a referendum for constitutional amendments.
Former Medical Services Minister Prof Amukowa Anangwe on Tuesday said the Punguza Mzigo and the BBI initiatives should be merged.
“There is no exclusivity. The two groups will have to sit down and agree on what points to drop from both sides to come up one bill for the referendum,” Anangwe told the Star on the phone.
Political analyst Herman Manyora said the Punguza Mizigo Bill was what the common mwananchi would prefer. He, however, said politicians make constitutions, not to serve the masses but their own interests.
“There is going to be a referendum. It will not be from the Thirdway Alliance but from President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga. You can take this to the bank,” Manyora said during a Monday night interview on Citizen TV.
edited by peter obuya