Last Thursday a five-judge bench of the High Court dropped a bombshell when it declared the Building Bridges Initiative and its associated Constitutional Amendment Bill to be unconstitutional.
In particular, the BBI Secretariat was the creation of the 'handshake' between Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta rather than the fruit of a popular initiative. The Bill also appeared to hijack functions of the IEBC by creating 70 new constituencies.
It doubtful that there now remains enough time to legislate the BBI constitutional amendments before the presidential election in August 2022. And getting two-thirds of MPs to railroad through the changes might discredit the Constitution itself.
Yet we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. There was much that was good about the BBI Bill. In particular, the creation of the post of Prime Minister with two deputies, chosen from among MPs, could help to stabilise the political system.
So let government now bring selected proposals from the BBI Bill to be voted on separately by MPs. That way we can save the best bits from the wreckage of BBI.
Quote of the day: "I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
Bertrand Russell
The British philosopher was born on May 18, 1872
