Raila Odinga has confirmed that a referendum was part of the handshake deal he made with President Uhuru Kenyatta in March 2018.
He was speaking in Kisumu where he made the pronouncements that are likely to ruffle feathers in Deputy President Ruto’s camp.
He also confirmed that the referendum is scheduled for 2019 once the Building Bridges Initiatives team complete collecting views from Kenyans and compiles its report.
“We agreed with the president that as soon as the task force finishes collecting views across the country, the buck will stop with the people through another vote,” revealed Raila.
The 14-member task force that was formed after the handshake was allocated Ksh100 million for the exercise that will take six months.
Early 2018, Muranga Senator Irungu Kang’ata stated that leaders from Central Kenya had jointly agreed to support constitutional amendments but Ruto rubbished the move, explaining that it would divert attention from the Big Four agenda.
The wage burden in Kenya has ballooned over the years owing to the numerous posts created by the new constitution.
Early September, MP Caleb Kositany (Soy) wrote to National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi seeking to introduce a bill to eliminate the Senate.
The MP wanted the position abolished claiming that it would save taxpayers Ksh3 billion used to remunerate occupants of the positions which he described as unnecessary.
This will be the third referendum in the country after the first one in 2005 and the second one in 2010 - which gave birth to the current constitution.
