MPs’ hatch new plan to speed up 52 BBI clauses

MPs allied to President Kenyatta are this week expected to revive the push for constitutional changes through parliamentary amendment Bills.

Following Friday’s Court of Appeal ruling that affirmed the High Court decision declaring the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) constitutional amendments illegal, the MPs have now cherry-picked 52 clauses of the BBI proposals, which, they say, don’t need the plebiscite to effect.

The aim is to have them passed by the House before the August 2022 General Election.

National budget

They include a provision guaranteeing that at least 35 per cent of the national budget revenue goes to the counties each year, the setting aside of at least five per cent of counties’ budgets to the wards, as well as those provisions touching on incentives for the youth, small and medium enterprises.

The initiative to speed up the targeted BBI clauses will go hand in hand with a similar push, the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC), led by Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni, which proposes constitutional amendments that require a referendum, but through the parliamentary route.

The BBI amendment proposals sought to change the constitution through what is termed as a popular initiative in which Parliament’s role is only ceremonial.

Lengthy process

The new approach will mean the submission of a draft Bill directly to Parliament, bypassing the lengthy process of collection and verification of one million signatures. It will also bypass the need to have the 47 county assemblies debate the Bill, and at least 24 of them pass it to before it proceeds to a referendum.

The draft Bill, which the Nation has seen, lifts the BBI clauses word for word.

“Article 89 of the Constitution is amended in clause (1) by deleting the words “two hundred and ninety” and substituting therefore the words “three hundred and sixty”,” the draft Bill by the committee states.

The plan has drawn a sharp opposition by Deputy President William Ruto MPs, who claim Kenyans are tired of the protracted push to amend the supreme law.

“We know what the Jubilee and ODM are planning. The President should stop encouraging the revival of the BBI,” Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro said yesterday during the DP’s tour of Kirinyaga County.

Read: Political aftermath of the BBI verdict

The Parliamentary route, the proponents argue, allows them to bypass the ills of the popular initiative, and would allow speeding up changes through a House largely seen as supportive of the initiative.

A staggering 235 MPs, the first time the House hit the enviable two-thirds majority, voted to pass the BBI Bill when it was tabled in the House in May.

The Kioni Committee, which has so far taken two constitutional Bills through public participation, has lined up one more Bills for debate this week.

The draft Bill, to be tabled before the Committee seeks to increase constituencies in Kenya from 290 to 360, as well as secure the fate of the 26 protected constituencies in 16 counties.

The constituencies had not met the population quota in 2012 but were allowed to remain in place and are now exposed following the BBI flop.

Ligale commission

The team wants the 70 extra constituencies created within six months of their approval in a plebiscite, and for those new electoral units to apply in 2022.

The draft Bill, like BBI, proposes the suspension of Article 89 (4) that bars the application of new electoral units created under one year to a General Election.

The constituencies that were saved in 2012 are Lamu East, Lamu West, Mvita, Mwatate, Wundanyi, Voi, Bura, Galole, Ndaragwa, Tetu, Mukurweini, Othaya, Kangema and Mathioya.

Others are Samburu East, Marakwet East, Keiyo North, Mogotio, Vihiga, Budalang’i, Isiolo South, Kilome, Laisamis, North Horr, Saku, and Mbeere North.

Even though they had not met the population criteria, the Andrew Ligale commission that reviewed constituency boundaries 2012 allowed the existence of the constituencies with the understanding that it would be reviewed in subsequent delimitation of boundaries.

The law demands that a constituency’s population be higher or lower than its quota by 40 per cent for cities and sparsely populated areas, and 30 per cent for other areas.

After the 2019 census, this calculation will be based on its figure of 47.6 million Kenyans. This means constituencies in urban cities and sparsely populated areas will have a maximum of 229,621 and a minimum of 98,409.

All other areas will have a population of a maximum of 213,219 and a minimum of 114,819.

Risk being scrapped

“Based on the 2019 census, we estimate that about 40 constituencies won’t meet the quota, and if not protected, as BBI had done, they risk being scrapped,” Mr Kioni told the Nation.

Besides the Bill to increase the constituencies, the Kioni-led committee has also proposed a Bill to allow elected legislators both in the national and county governments to be selected as members of the Cabinet.

The other Bill by the CIOC team, which seeks to actualise BBI, seeks to ensure that political parties are allowed to nominate their presidential and running mate candidates, and to put them on top of the list.

“This is a Bill that has already gone through public participation. It wants to ensure that presidential and running mate candidates are on top of the list and in case those parties qualify for nomination slots, it’s those individuals that get to Parliament,” Mr Kioni said.

The MP, whose committee is integral in the passage of pro-BBI legislations, said they will also back other non-constitutional Bills that might be required to ensure BBI’s success.

Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr and Nairobi’s Johnson Sakaja said the only way not to throw away the baby with the bathwater was to ensure Parliament passes non-contentious clauses that don’t require a plebiscite.

“After the High Court ruling, we proposed a parliamentary process where our legislators, from all parties, would isolate issues of consensus and make necessary interventions.

“It is not too late for this. We urge our colleagues in Parliament to put the country first,” the two senators said in a joint statement.

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