• Since the bill in the report is yet to be published in the Kenya Gazette formally, it is important that the promoters accommodate the views of people who think there are errors.
• Even those who are supporting the process are saying they need some minimum editorials of things that appear so obviously wrong
President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga have to accept changes to the Building Bridges Initiative report.
The reason why it is absolutely crucial for them to accept minimum editorials to the BBI report is that once the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020, is published and signatures are collected, it cannot be amended. The principle of a constitutional amendment bill is that it cannot be amended once published.
Should the handshake principals begin signature collection without factoring the proposals, they must be prepared for the opposition. There will be growing opposition from the fact that they will not have appeared to have accommodated the views of the people, including the ones who are supporting the process.
Even those who are supporting the process are saying they need some minimum editorials of things that appear so obviously wrong, including myself. We have asked them to edit as we cannot send the document for signature collection when it still has some problems.
The issue of amendments to constitutional bills is a matter that has been debated since the 2005 referendum. In the Wako Draft and Kilifi Draft, the principle was that once a document is published as a constitutional amendment, it cannot be amended. That is why since the bill in the report is yet to be published in the Kenya Gazette formally, it is important that the promoters accommodate the views of people who think there are errors that need to be corrected.
Immediately the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission publishes the draft bill and the signatures are collected, then that door is closed.
Under the popular initiative, Parliament’s role is at the tail-end of the process. In a parliamentary initiative, parliament comes right at the top and hence the process of a bill going through a first reading and second reading will apply. We then can make changes during the pre-publication stage, which is not possible with a popular initiative as is the case of Building Bridges Initiative. Consensus building is thus important in this case.
The lawyer and Makueni Senator spoke to the Star