President Uhuru Kenyatta closed out the BBI retreat in Naivasha (National Assembly and Senate) on Monday, November 2, setting the stage for the next phase of the process.
According to a document seen by Kenyans.co.ke, the BBI task force is on track to deliver the proposals in the form of a referendum within a given set of timelines.
The legislators used the retreat to generate a formula to allocate new parliamentary seats across different counties, as well as establish the Referendum Committee whose members are yet to be unveiled.
The BBI team will now embark on the journey to collect 1 million signatures required by the constitution, which is expected to take 30 days from November 2 to December 2.
Refining and submission of the signatures to the IEBC is expected to be completed by December 9 to allow the commission to verify them under the mandated timeframe.
President Kenyatta has already signed into law the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Amendment Bill No. 3 of 2019 which establishes a selection panel to oversee the recruitment of commissioners to fill vacant positions as future appointments to the electoral agency.
The draft referendum bill is scheduled to be presented to the various county assemblies which will be required to either reject or approve the proposals by February 19, 2021.
If more than 24 county assemblies approve the proposals, the draft referendum bill will be presented to Parliament for a vote by April 6.
If successful, the BBI team will expect the IEBC to conduct a referendum anytime from April 6 to June 6.
A showdown will be expected as politicians who oppose the proposals will be urging their followers to reject the documents, unless the bill becomes uncontested.
Politicians such as Deputy President William Ruto as well as former VP Musalia Mudavadi have suggested that the proposals be revised to avoid a scenario where the referendum will pit Kenyans against each other.
“We should find a mechanism to bring together all divergent views on the Building Bridges Initiative report. It is possible for us to agree on the contentious issues therein so that we can move the country forward. We cannot unite Kenya through divisive tactics,” Ruto advised.
