Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen has accused the government of intimidating head teachers, principals and other state officials to collect signatures for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
In a tweet, Murkomen claimed that the state was threatening to sack civil servants who've refused to spearhead the exercise in their various locations.
He advised government officials across the country to comply with the state but vote contrary when it comes to the referendum.
“If BBI is about “New Kenya” to promote unity, democracy and eliminate corruption why are chiefs, H/teachers, principals, parastatal chiefs and staff, civil servants, county staff etc threatened with sack unless they collect signatures. I told them to sign and keep their jobs they can vote otherwise,” he said.
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Elsewhere, reports indicate that a section of the youth enrolled to Kazi Mtaani across the country is being forced to sign the BBI document in a bid to attain the 4 million signature target.
On Monday, the BBI secretariat announced that over 1.5 million signatures had been collected so far.
“We are happy to report that the exercise has taken off well and is running smoothly. Kenyans have welcomed the Bill with a lot of enthusiasm and they are eager to support the envisaged referendum.
"As at the close of day yesterday, 1.5 million registered voters had appended their signature in support of the Bill and we have every reason to believe we will surpass two million by the end of today. We therefore project that we shall be done with the exercise by the end of the week and move to the next step,” the BBI secretariat’s statement read in part.
