•Banda said with the court ruling, he believes that Kenya requires leadership that is going to represent the future.
Image: Musembi Nzengu
The United Democratic Alliance party coordinator for Kitui Moses Banda has lauded the High Court for declaring the BBI constitutional amendment push illegal.
In a statement to newsrooms on Sunday, Banda said that the five-judge bench of the High Court did Kenya proud by ruling that the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was unconstitutional.
Banda said the court's decision will protect the interest of Kenyans.
“I wish to join other Kenyans in lauding the five judges who ruled that the Building Bridges Initiative Bill, was illegal, irregular, unlawful and unconstitutional,” Banda said.
He said that had the court not brought halted the constitutional amendment push, it would have become a heavy burden to Kenyans.
“Through the judiciary and in this ruling, Kenyans have spoken and have been vindicated. We want to remind the BBI proponents that doing the right thing never goes out of style,” he said.
“The expanded Executive, as well as the additional parliamentary seats that would have been created by the BBI, would have forced poor Kenyans to dig deeper into their pockets to pay hefty taxes to fund the unnecessary offices.”
Banda lamented that Kitui county would not have benefited from the 70 new constituencies and that the BBI committee had also ignored a petition by Kitui people to create Mwingi 'county'.
He said that with the BBI, Kenya would have found itself in a precarious situation that would only serve the whims of selfish leaders who are inclined on looking at issues with narrow ethnic and parochial lenses.
The UDA official said the ruling confirms inherent fears among Kenyans that BBI was drafted to serve the interests of a few individuals and their communities to the exclusion of the majority of the citizens.
“Some of the leaders behind the now unconstitutional BBI Bill have been in power for the last 30 to 35 years and will certainly go down in history as a good example of horrible leaders. These leaders are of a different generation representing history,” Banda said.
He said with the court ruling, he believes that Kenya requires leadership that is going to represent the future.
“Our country is economically ailing due to the Covid-19 pandemic and we should be thinking of how to address issues like the high unemployment rate and how to manage the post-Covid-19 economic distress,” he said.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris