False: BBI Secretariat not taking BBI case to Supreme Court

On Friday, August 20, 2021, the Court of Appeal withdrew the case where BBI proponents were seeking the court’s reconsideration of the High Court decision of stopping the BB Amendment Bill, 2020.

The seven-judge bench of the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the lower court, which nullified the BBI process, ending the push to have a referendum before the 2022 general elections.

Following the Court of Appeal’s judgment, ODM leader Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka Wiper leader and ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi accepted the decision and the need to move on.

But days later, fake news emerged that the BBI secretariat has launched the move to further seek the decision of the Supreme Court on the same.

This emerged on Tuesday through a two-page statement that purported to have originated from the BBI secretariat led by the Suna East MP Junet Mohamed.

“We are happy to announce that the BBI Secretariat will be appealing against the judgment of the Court of Appeal decision rendered on Friday, August 20th. We are happy to note the positive aspects of the judgment.,” the fake statement claimed.

It also claimed that it was dissatisfied with the judgment issued by the Court of Appeal.

These are some of the claims highlighted by the fake news spreaders that are said to have poised them to take the case to the highest court in the country:

• We agree that there is a basic structure in our Constitution but we do not understand why the Court of Appeal could not find that Basic Structure is contained in Article 255where the protected clauses are well enumerated.
• Another area of dissatisfaction is the primary constituent power and four-part criteria required before a popular initiative Bill can be introduced.

But in its essence, the statement looks fake by appearance, since one member of the secretariat has never issued a statement on behave of the team.

Since the inception of the BBI Secretariat, the team has been issuing statements and addressing the press as a team, and not being a one-man show affair.

While the team was challenging the High Court’s decision, the BBI Joint secretaries Junet, and his counterpart Denis Waweru addressed the press and informed them of the next move, which is not the matter as claimed by the fake statement.

Junet rubbished the claims through his Twitter account, saying that the statement was fake.

“Ignore this document circulating purportedly authored by myself. It is fake,” Junet said.

Unfortunately, some of the local media fell victims to this.

Nevertheless, ODM leader Raila Odinga had categorically said that they will not take the matter to the Supreme Court if the Court of Appeal would dismiss their application.

Therefore, Kenyans should ignore the statement, since the matter would have been made public by the entire team.