Senior Counsel Otiende Amollo on Wednesday told the court of appeal that the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) was a popular initiative promoted by MP Junet Mohammed and Dennis Waweru.
Speaking before 7 Court of Appeal judges, SC Amollo stated that the High Court was wrong in declaring that BBI was an initiative of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“Against all uncontroverted evidence, the promoters of this initiative were Dennis Waweru & Junet Mohamed, the court insists on finding Pres. Kenyatta as the promoter. Anyone can support the initiative,” Otiende stated.
SC Amollo read out a sworn affidavit by Mr. Waweru which stressed the same point saying that the two promoters of BBI communicated with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on 24th November 2020.
SC Otiende Amollo/ Photo courtesy
It is at this point that IEBC allowed the BBI secretariat to traverse the country collecting signatures which it did.
Senior Counsel Otiende Amollo went further to state that the constitution does not restrict the president from promoting a constitutional change process.
“Nothing in law stops the President from initiating a popular initiative process to amend the Constitution,” he said.
Honourable Junet Mohammed and Dennis Waweru were co-chairmen of the BBI secretariat.
The ongoing appeal at the Court of Appeal is the culmination of a legal battle that started at the High Court where a 5 judge bench declared the BBI constitutional change process as unconstitutional.
Starting on Tuesday 29th June 2021, the proponents of the Constitutional Amendment Act (2020) mounted a defence of the BBI with the hearings of the case set to end on Friday 2nd July 2021.
