Despite the Supreme Court’s Thursday verdict declaring the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) unlawful, political analyst Herman Manyora now argues that it is still on hold.
The Supreme Court bench rejected the bill’s constitutional amendments due to a number of issues, including the proposed creation of 70 new constituencies, the president’s role as an initiator of the popular initiative, and a lack of adequate public participation prior to the bill’s introduction in Parliament.
Despite the Apex Court’s decision, Manyora claims that the landmark decision has laid down a clear course for Kenya to follow in the future when it comes to constitutional revisions.
“I believe, as Uhuru predicted, BBI will return one day. It’s halftime, according to Raila. That, I believe, is the current scenario. It clarified how the process can be carried out in the future,” he stated.
According to Manyora, who spoke on Citizen TV’s ‘Tonight’ show, the Supreme Court was not concerned about the proposed revisions, except for a few issues, but rather concerned about how Kenya was going about the process without according to constitutional conditions.
“BBI was fine.” This referendum can continue on indefinitely. I believe the entire issue revolves around Kenya’s ability to modify the Constitution, which has been addressed thoroughly and clearly throughout the day. Kenyans can now modify their Constitution, contrary to the logic and opinion of the High Court and the Court of Appeal. He continued, “That was the only question, and it has been addressed.”
Manyora went on to suggest that the basic framework of the BBI will have to be toned down if it is to be adopted in the future, because it was supposedly too complicated for the typical Kenyan to comprehend.
“All there was to discuss in the Supreme Court was the basic structure, and I loved how Chief Justice Martha Koome presented it so plainly in a simple, straightforward fashion that even an elementary school could understand, and that’s how I’d like it to be going forward.” When we have a problem to fix, let us do so in a straightforward manner,” he remarked.
“I must also say that in the future, anyone who believes there are insufficient safeguards on this subject of basic structure, as I believe we will in the future, should go to the people and ask them to increase the safeguards.”
We want to make amending the Constitution a little more difficult, and that is the route we should go as citizens.”
