Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju has stated that President Uhuru Kenyatta is listening to legal advice from his team before speaking after the High Court declared the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Amendment Bill 2020 as unconstitutional.
Speaking during an interview on Monday night, Tuju was put to task to explain why the Head of State had not spoken considering he was one of the main proponents pushing BBI.
"The President is the President of the whole country. It is wise that he listens to his legal advisers before he talks about this. When it comes to the court, we have to navigate very carefully," Tuju said.
The Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju added," The judges who ruled on this matter and even insinuated that the President has no say on this matter, I would call it selective reading of a constitution. In Article 10 of the constitution, the President has the responsibility for national unity."
Tuju expressed concern with some of the things that were said during the ruling citing the example of referring to President Kenyatta as 'Mr.
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"High Court judges were not courteous to the President by referring to him as 'Mr'," he said.
File Image of President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga receiving the BBI Report.
On Friday, a five-judge bench made up of Justices Joel Ngugi, George Odunga, Jairus Ngaah, Teresia Matheka, and Chacha Mwita declared the BBI process illegal, arguing that the President cannot initiate a popular initiative.
“It is our finding that popular initiative is a power reserved for Wanjiku neither the president or any other state organ can utilize article 257 to amend the constitution.
“President cannot purport to directly initiate a constitutional amendment. He isn’t part of parliament. He has no power under the constitution to initiate changes under the constitution since parliament is the only state organ that can consider the effecting of constitutional changes. The president is not permitted to amend the constitution using popular initiative," part of the ruling read.
Read Also: DP Ruto's Reaction Hours after Court Declares BBI Process Illegal
As to whether IEBC has the capacity to hold a referendum, the court noted that the elections body lacks the quorum to oversee a Constitutional amendment process through a popular initiative.
“A referendum cannot be determined by an organ that is not properly constituted. We conclude that IEBC did not have the quorum at a time it made and therefore all decisions made were invalid, null and void,” the judges pronounced themselves,” the court ruled.
