IEBC Clears BBI Referendum Bill After Verifying 1.1 Million Signatures

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has confirmed that the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Constitutional Amendment Bill received the support of at least one million voters as required by law.

IEBC Chairman, Wafula Chebukati on Tuesday notified all the 47 county assemblies that the initiative met the requisite threshold as provided in Article 257(4) of the Constitution.

He indicated that the commission verified that the initiative was supported by 1,140,845 registered voters out of the over 4.4 million signatures submitted by the BBI Secretariat last month.

“Pursuant to Article 257 (5) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, the Commission hereby submits a copy of the draft BBI (Constitutional Amendment) Bill 2020, to your County Assembly for consideration within three months from the date hereof,” Chebukati said in a letter to the 47 county assembly speakers.

He added: “In conformity with Article 257(6) you are required to submit the decisions of your County Assembly to the Speakers of the National Assembly and the Senate within three months from the date of this letter.”

In a statement, BBI Secretariat co-chair, Dennis Waweru applauded IEBC for promptly verifying the signatures, terming it a great milestone for the process.

“With the clearance from IEBC, we now have a short time to have the BBI Referendum Bill tabled in all the 47 county assemblies in order to have a referendum conducted as soon as possible. The secretariat will soon be giving more directions with regard to the process,” said Waweru. Dennis Waweru, Co-Chair BBI Secretariat.