- Raila and Uhuru have been fighting in court to save the Bill after the High Court nullified the process.
- In the ruling delivered on May 14, the-five judge bench declared the BBI process as unconstitutional, null and void.
Image: PSCU
Political big guns are keeping their options open on the push to amend the Constitution as the Court of Appeal decides on the future of the Building Bridges Initiative on Friday.
The Star has established that should the appellate court scuttle the BBI process, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his handshake partner Raila Odinga will promise the country a referendum in 90 days after the 2022 polls.
This would be the case if Raila is elected President on August 9, 2022.
Sources said this is part of the negotiations Uhuru and Raila are having with the One Kenya Alliance chiefs of Musalia Mudavadi (ANC), Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Moses Wetang'ula and Gideon Moi (Kanu).
On Wednesday, Raila alluded to referendum plans after the elections, saying they would not appeal the ruling at the Supreme Court should the judgment be against them
"If they stop BBI, we shall leave it at that and start preparing for elections," Raila said.
"We shall bring it back in the new government. We don't want to waste time going to the Supreme Court."
However, even if the Court of Appeal gives the BBI a new lease on life, there are doubts whether there is sufficient time for a referendum before the general election.
“We have run out of time,” Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr, a proponent of the changes, told the Star.
“We can’t have the election and referendum within a year to the election. The referendum must give way.”
The position is backed by lawyers Mutakha Kangu and Paul Aol who said the IEBC would need time to prepare.
“It don’t think there would be a referendum. There would not be enough time to do that. A referendum is an election and it still requires registering voters and all the others.
"The truth of the matter is that we are now less than 365 days to elections and the IEBC is planning for the general election,” Kangu told the Star.
Aol said the BBI Bill creates 70 additional constituencies and IEBC requires time to do boundary delimitation.
The BBI creates five powerful slots at the apex of the Executive, which political heavyweights have been planning to use in cobbling together coalitions. The plum jobs could lure partners.
Besides the President and deputy, BBI also creates powerful the positions of the Prime Minister and two deputies.
It also allows MPs to be appointed to the Cabinet.
When the High Court slammed the brakes on the constitutional change, it threw politicians off balance, forcing them to devise new power plans
“The BBI Bill threw a spanner into the works on ethnic arithmetic. It stirred up issues of political arithmetic for those hoping to run for president,” political and governance expert Javas Bigambo said.
Uhuru and Raila have held two closed-door meetings with the OKA leaders at State House in Mombasa in an attempt to persuade the reluctant lot to support Raila for the top job.
Sources at the two State House meetings disclosed that part of the discussion was about the BBI and salvaging the positions to accommodate the leaders after the polls.
Though non-executive, the holder of the office of the Prime Minister would be an influential figure both in Parliament and in the Executive.
The PM would be the leader of government business in Parliament. However, the holder of that office must be an MP.
Kalonzo, Wetang'ula and Mudavadi supported Raila’s presidential candidature in the 2017 elections.
They have said they would not back him again over what they termed a trust deficit and demanded that he supports one of them as a condition to reunite with him.
The OKA chiefs and their technical teams have been working on the coalition’s manifesto and instruments. They have insisted that the alliance will field a presidential flag-bearer in the general elections.
“As the Great Rift Valley Declaration, we hereby unequivocally state that One Kenya Alliance will field a presidential candidate in next year’s general elections,” they said after a strategy meeting at Great Rift Valley Hotel in Naivasha on Tuesday.
However, the four also banked on positions created in the BBI Bill to remain not only remain afloat should they support Raila, but also accommodate as many ‘communities’ as possible in their alliance — should they opt to go whole hog.
Though critical of the drive, pundits say DP Ruto also stands to benefit with the creation of the additional positions.
He would have the leeway to dangle the positions to various communities to entice them to his UDA and bolster his presidential bid.
(Edited by V. Graham)