The Supreme Court has declined to hear a BBI Bill case filed by Nandi, Kericho, and Makueni counties.
According to the court, a similar matter is pending at the High Court, therefore, the petitioners must wait for the lower court to pronounce itself on the matter.
In their petitions, the three petitioners sought an advisory opinion from the court on how the BBI Bill should be handled.
Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana sought the court's opinion on whether a proposed amendment to the Constitution should only be limited to one issue, and whether public officers can be used to promote constitutional amendment through a popular initiative.
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“It makes it easy for the public to understand what issue is proposed to be amended and for the people to freely exercise their will on whether to support the amendment without being confused about having to choose between too many issues,” Kibwana said after filing the petition in December 2020.
In their petition, Nandi and Kericho counties sought to understand whether they could amend the Bill while debating it since the handshake principals had indicated that the Bill cannot be amended at the county assembly stage.
“We have noted that, while Article 256 which guides constitutional amendment through a parliamentary initiative is detailed on procedure and process of processing a constitutional amendment, Article 257 which relates to popular initiative seems silent on the process and procedure parliament has to use in consideration and passage of a bill to amend the constitution,” a statement from the two counties read in part.
