Police Officer Charged for Tearing BBI Signature Collection Booklet, Throwing it into River

A police officer was on Thursday arraigned in court for allegedly shredding a Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) signature collection booklet.

Police Constable Peter Langat was arraigned before Bomet Principal Magistrate Lilian Kinyale where he was charged with malicious damage to property. 

Langat, who works at a post in Bungoma County, is said to teared the booklet at Kipreres in Bomet East Sub-County on Wednesday before throwing it into the river.

He allegedly took the signed papers from area assistant chief, Robert Katam who was overseeing the BBI signature collection exercise.

Langat was arrested after Katam reported the matter to Longisa police station under OB Number 10/2/12/2020.

“The motive as to why the officer committed the act was unknown,” the report read.

The charge sheet indicated that Langat “willfully and unlawfully destroyed Building Bridges Initiative Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2020 signature collection booklet.”

He denied the charge and was freed on a cash bail of Sh20,000. The case will be mentioned on December 17th, 2020.

The nationwide signature collection drive for the BBI referendum bill ended on Thursday.

The BBI Secretariat led by Suna East MP Junet Mohammed said more than four million signatures were collected during the drive.

The secretariat will submit the signature to Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for verification and processing.