Kenyans say 'BBI is Dead' as Kenya's Supreme Court puts a final end to BBI

Kenya’s Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the plans, proposed by President Uhuru Kenyatta, to amend the Constitution through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). (Read More Here).

In a majority decision of five against two, the top court judges agreed that the BBI Bill, which sought to amend the supreme law through a popular initiative was unconstitutional.

The judges agreed that President Kenyatta was the promoter of the initiative yet the Constitution does not grant him the powers to amend the laws through a popular initiative.

The seven-judge bench in a majority decision, however, agreed that the basic structure doctrine is not applicable in the Kenyan constitution.

The Supreme Court of Kenya has dealt a blow to the proponents of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) after a seven-judge bench ruled that the quest to change Kenya’s Constitution was not procedural.

Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki, the IEBC, and BBI co-principals Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga had filed an appeal at the apex court after the Court of Appeal threw out the BBI push.

Chief Justice Martha Koome said the 2010 Constitution has been “resilient” to survive 21 unsuccessful attempts at changing it. She said 19 of these attempts were through the Parliamentary initiative, while two were through the popular initiative route.

One of the two popular initiative attempts, the court found, was made by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who they ruled does not have the right to initiate constitutional changes using the popular initiative route.

Chief Justice Koome, Justices William Ouko, Isaac Lenaola, Smokin Wanjala, Mohamed Ibrahim in their statements, said the popular initiative route is reserved for Wanjiku and not holders of the offices in the Executive or the Legislature.

“The popular initiative is supposed to be triggered from below; at the initiative of the citizenry, as opposed to representative institutions. A popular initiative is a means of direct democracy, and indeed, direct democracy can only be exercised by the people and not their representative,” said the Chief Justice.

A majority of the judges found that the basic structure doctrine of the Constitution does not apply in Kenya.

Kenyans are currently rejoicing over the decision as they are saying ‘BBI is Dead.’

Reactions from Kenyans below:

COSMO CHOY

@cosmochoy

I have never been this happy.

BBI is Dead.

RIP BBI.

Ahmednasir Abdullahi SC

@ahmednasirlaw

BBI is dead…”H.E UHURU could not commence a popular initiative to amend the constitution” as he was not a WANJIKU! CJ KOOME.

Nelson Havi

@NelsonHavi

Death is death: whether from an anopheles mosquito bite or a bazooka round. That is the fate of The BBI Bill. It is dead and buried.

Evans Koech

@EvansKoech0

The death of BBI is just a curtain raiser. It’s meant to prepare the Azimio team for premium tears come August.