• IEBC was to consult Parliament and Attorney General in drafting referendum Bill.
• MPs have also removed requirement for referendum committees.
Image: FILE
Politicians may not have a direct role in drafting the anticipated Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) referendum bill should the process yield one.
The Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee wants the responsibility of drafting referendum bills assigned to the Kenya Law Reform Commission (KLRC).
The CIOC chaired by Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni has proposed this in further amendments to the Referendum Bill, 2020 - due for second reading.
The BBI final report is yet to be released but there are indications it would bring with it proposals that require a referendum to approve.
Among the anticipated outcomes is a change of the structure of government to expand the Executive, changes which may precipitate a referendum.
MPs are thus in a race against time to pass the bill which would form the legal basis for conducting the vote to change the Constitution.
The Political Parties Liaison Committee chaired by former Transport PS Irungu Nyakera had told the CIOC the KLRC should be mandated to draft all legislative bills.
“The political class should not have a direct role in drafting referendum bills,” the parties’ liaison committee told MPs.
Initially, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was to consult the Attorney General or Parliament in redrafting referendum bills.
But in the proposal, the IEBC would submit to KLRC and clerks of Parliament in seven days, the draft bill – under a popular initiative - once it meets the required threshold.
The polls' agency first has to check – within 90 days - if the bill is supported by one million registered voters drawn from at least half of the 47 counties.
KLRC and the clerks of Parliament have 30 days, after receiving the bill, to redraft it to conform to the Constitution, format and style prescribed in Parliamentary Standing Orders.
This, according to the proposal, should be done without altering the substance of the bill after which the IEBC shall submit it to each county assembly.
In what may also lock out political groupings from having the sole say on the bill, MPs have removed provisions for creating referendum committees to steer campaigns.
“This is to allow any person who was interested in campaigning for or against the bill to do so. This will ensure that persons freely campaign for or against the referendum question without having to form referendum committees.”
To cure laxity among county assemblies, they will no longer have the luxury of keeping the bill and have to pass it within 90 days.
National Assembly and Senate speakers have 14 days to have a bill approved by at least 24 county assemblies introduced in the respective houses.
Parliament would be required to consider the bill within six months from the date it was introduced.
The IEBC will now be required to publish the referendum question within 21 days of getting a notice to conduct a referendum.
CIOC said the proposed seven days was too short as the IEBC is required to refer the question or option to Parliament for approval.
The polls' agency has equally been barred from using symbols resembling that of a political party or used by independent candidate in a preceding general election.
A petition challenging the outcome of a referendum vote will be dispensed in 60 days and not the six months stated in the Bill.
“This will ensure that a referendum petition, being a matter of national importance, will be heard and determined within a short and reasonable time,” the CIOC report reads.
MPs also want IEBC allowed to establish special polling stations for those unable to vote in the polling stations which they were registered as voters.
This will apply to “where special and unavoidable circumstances exist for the voter’s inability to vote at his or her registered polling station.”
CIOC, however, concluded that the voting will have to be done the same day as the date of the referendum.
MPs have also relaxed the earlier proposal for IEBC to declare referendum results in 48 hours and increased the same to seven days.
Petitions challenging the outcome will now be filed in 28 days and not the 21 days that was spelt out in the Referendum Bill, 2020.
A decision on such a matter shall be delivered to the IEBC within 48 hours of the court ruling.
Poll officers manning the plebiscite will be required to observe the Code of Conduct outlined in the Elections Act.