It is a spectacular halt to the constitutional reform that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta wants, which was granted on Thursday, May 13, by Justice. This project, called the “BBI” (Building Bridges Initiative), was to be adopted by a referendum before the 2022 presidential election. However, a panel of five judges particularly appreciated that the process launched in 2018 by the head of state to lead to this reform was simply illegal.
The judges of the Supreme Court of Nairobi appeared unanimously on television Thursday night. For more than four hours, they read their decision, very technical and very detailed, about The BBI bill. And their verdict is clear: this project to reform national institutions is illegal, unconstitutional and therefore invalid.
This project, wanted by President Kenyatta and launched in 2018, provides for the establishment of a post of Prime Minister appointed by the President, two Deputy Prime Ministers and an official leader of the opposition: the candidate has finished second in the presidential election.
However, the judges consider the working group behind this project to be an “illegal, unknown to the law” unit. In addition, according to them, the president does not have the legal possibility to change the constitution, not even through a referendum. This constitutive power belongs only to the Kenyan people, and not to the head of state, they say.
An appeal against the forthcoming decision
“The president can not be both the initiator and the arbitrator for the amendment of the constitution,” they specify, adding that the BBI was full of conflicts of interest. They conclude that the process is therefore null and void from the outset, that is to say, without value from the outset, and that its decision has no legal consequences.
It should be noted, however, that the Kenyan Minister of Justice has announced his intention to appeal this ruling.
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