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The National Assembly has pushed the debate on the Building Bridges Initiative(BBI) Bill to May 4 when the house resumes sittings before a vote is taken.
On the fresh attempt to reopen the the BBI document, senators have lined up proposals in an attempt to amend the report claiming that it has “several fundamental flaws” that should be corrected before it is taken to a referendum despite the push by the BBI legislators to pass the Bill as it is.
Murang’a County senator Irungu Kang’ata, Kitui County senator Enoch Wambua, Petronilla Were (nominated), George Khaniri (Vihiga), Kipchumba Murkomen (Elgeyo Marakwet) and Aaron Cheruiyot (Kericho) said Parliament should be allowed to amend various parts of the bill expunged describing them as offensive.
In his quest to amend the Bill, Kang’ata argued that the bill should be amended or struck out in totality, saying the irregularities and illegalities contained therein are fundamental.
He said that the schedule creating the constituencies does not indicate the schedule to which it is anchored.
“We do have two bills; one before the National Assembly and the other before the Senate. Those are not simple typographical errors.
“There is nothing that stops this House from removing all amendments that are unconstitutional and taking to the people constitutional amendments,” he said.
Kanga’ata also wants the numbers of new additional constituencies increased from 70 to 79.
The nine additional to be allocated to Murang’a, Nyeri, Meru, Embu, Kirinyaga, Laikipia and Tharaka Nithi Counties.
Additionally, he wants articles on representations in the National Assembly and the senate, increasing the number of senators from 67 to 94 and MPs from 349 to 360.
Wambua cited that the bill weakens the Senate, erodes gains made by women and has no clear provision on how it will end divisive elections as propagated by its promoters.
Seconding the decision to amend the Bill, Nyamira Senator Okong’o Omogeni, who co-chaired the joint parliamentary team that considered the bill, pointed out errors in the bill.
“How will we look in the face of Kenyans if we take to them a bill that has errors?” Omogeni posed.
He cited clause 13 (b) of the bill that seeks to amend Article 97 of the Constitution.
The bill in the Senate, he said, erroneously makes reference to clause (3), while that in the National Assembly correctly makes reference to clause (2).
In fact, there is no clause 3 in Article 97 of the Constitution as referred to in the BBI bill before the Senate.
“I am sure that even the President and Raila, the owners of the handshake, are not going to kill us before we have corrected these areas. The bill being considered in the NA does not have these errors,” he said.
The legislator went ahead to identify unconstitutional clauses in the bill. He cited proposed creation of 70 constituencies, terming the schedule creating them unconstitutional. He also questioned the method used to allocate the constituencies to some 28 counties.
However, Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja, differed with his colleagues, saying Parliament cannot usurp the sovereign right of Kenyans.
“If the intention of Wanjiku is clear, you cannot say it is unconstitutional. All sovereign power belongs to the people. A referendum is one of those events where people exercise their sovereignty,” he said.
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