REFERENDUM PUSH

BBI secretariat to submit 4.4 million signatures to IEBC today

The signatures submission to IEBC comes after six days of internal verification.

In Summary

• The initiative attracted 5.2 million signatures from Kenyans implying the internal verification weeded out 800,000 fake signatures.

• The secretariat on Wednesday announced they are through with the verification exercise and are ready to proceed to the next phase.

ODM leader Raila Odinga at Daraja House on December 4, 2020 when he receive over five million BBI national signatures.
ODM leader Raila Odinga at Daraja House on December 4, 2020 when he receive over five million BBI national signatures.
Image: COURTESY

The BBI secretariat will on Thursday submit 4.4 million signatures to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

The initiative attracted 5.2 million signatures from Kenyans implying the internal verification weeded out 800,000 fake signatures.

The dropped signatures included cases where there was a mismatch on voter details.

 

"We have decided to submit 4.4 million signatures, we are also presenting the signatures plus the Bill," BBI secretariat co-chair Dennis Waweru said.

"This is the same Bill that was launched on 25th November."

IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati is expected to receive the signatures at Commission Anniversary Towers offices.

The signatures submission to IEBC comes after six days of internal verification.

 
 

The secretariat on Wednesday announced they are through with the verification exercise and are ready to proceed to the next phase.

BBI co-chairs Junet Mohamed and Dennis Waweru said they had booked Thursday with the IEBC boss Wafula Chebukati for the event.

"The internal verification of the signatures was completed on Wednesday and we will submit the internally verified signatures in both manual and digital formats to IEBC on Thursday," Waweru said.

 

Junet said Kenyans had two years to give their views adding the door is closed for any further amendments.

The Star established that Uhuru and Raila held last-minute phone conversations on Tuesday and directed the Building Bridges Initiative secretariat to submit the signatures to the IEBC on Thursday.

According to insiders privy to the discussions, the two leaders agreed that any changes could have opened the floodgates for more amendments, especially from Ruto’s wing.

 
 

There were also concerns that far-reaching changes to an already-published bill would raise fundamental legal questions, given that signatures had already been collected based on the draft bill.

The Star had on Wednesday exclusively reported a stand-off in the secretariat over ODM's push to reopen the Bill for amendments.

At the heart of the Raila team demands was a review of the formula for distribution of the proposed 70 new constituencies and appointment of IEBC commissioners by political parties.

The fresh IEBC demands are said to have been strongly rebuffed by Uhuru's wing, which insisted that the appointment of commissioners to the IEBC should be done by a selection panel.

Fearing a nasty break-up, Uhuru is said to have reached out to Raila on Tuesday and agreed that the document will not be radically amended, save for some slight changes to the annexures.

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