IEBC Responds After Reports That Only 13 County Assemblies Passed the Right BBI Bill

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has denied claims that it submitted different versions of the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2020 to the 47 county assemblies. 

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati in a statement on Thursday stated that the commission only submitted copies it received from the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) secretariat.

He noted that BBI secretariat co-chairs Junet Mohamed and Dennis Waweru initially submitted six copies of the Bill to IEBC.

The commission later requested more printed copies from the secretariat for onward transmission to county assemblies.
 
“The BBI Promoters delivered to the commission fifty-seven (57) printed copies of the Bill, out of which the commission submitted forty-seven (47) copies to the county assemblies,” Chebukati stated.

The statement comes after it emerged that only 13 county assemblies passed the correct Bill, throwing the entire BBI process into turbulence.  

The mix-up has been cited as one of the reasons why both the Senate and National Assembly are yet to make a decision on the BBI Bill.

The Bill was submitted to the two Houses after it was endorsed by at least 24 counties as required by the law.

43 county assemblies voted in favor of the Bill while Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, and Nandi rejected it. Uasin Gishu county assembly abstained.