Why We Decided To Appeal BBI Judgment - Raila

by Brian Kimani on Friday, 27 August 2021 - 9:42 am

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga at KICC in Nairobi for the National launch of BBI signatures collection exercise. November 25, 2020.

PSCU

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader, Raila Odinga, has criticised the judgment issued by the Court of Appeal declaring the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) unconstitutional and illegal.

Speaking on Kameme TV on Friday morning, August 27, Raila argued that part of the judgment issued by the seven-judge bench contravened the constitution and that those areas required the interpretation of a higher court.

He added that if the ruling was left unquestioned, changing the constitution would be an uphill task for Kenyans in the future.

Suna East MP Junet Mohamed (left), and BBI Secretariat Co-Chair Dennis Waweru (right) submit signatures to IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati (centre) at IEBC headquarters in Nairobi on December 10, 2020

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Raila added that despite he and President Uhuru Kenyatta not seeking to challenge the decision, his colleagues were free to pursue the matter.

"Even though President Uhuru and I don't agree with the court's decision, we respect it so we would not like to take the case forward to the Supreme Court, but anyone else is free to do so. When the time is right, we will come back to it," Raila stated.

"As I have said, there are areas where the ruling contravened the constitution, we say that if the ruling is left as it is, it's going to be hard for Kenyans to change the constitution."

The ODM party leader stated that they have drifted their focus towards the next course in the 2022 General Election, but affirmed that they would resume discussions on BBI at a later date.

"The intention in BBI was good. The economy was collapsing because of political differences especially after elections, so the President and I met and decided to look at the issues and how to fix them, that is how we came up with the nine-point agenda."

Further, the ODM leader took a swipe at Deputy President William Ruto and his allies over claims that the 2018 handshake, that birthed the BBI, stopped the big four agenda.

"I am not in the government. For those saying that the handshake stopped the Big 4 Agenda, that is just political chatter, they are the ones taking a salary from the government but instead of working, they are campaigning."

Raila, in an earlier statement, had affirmed that he wouldn't challenge the decision made by the appellate court.