BBI case hearing begins at Supreme Court

It will be a three-day marathon hearing from Tuesday to Thursday.

The Attorney General, President Uhuru Kenyatta, ODM leader Raila Odinga and the electoral commission IEBC will try to overturn the Court of Appeal decision that declared BBI unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court has locked Tuesday to Thursday as the hearing days for the BBI appeal. All parties in the case have been limited to only two lawyers to submit their case within 45 minutes.

The time frames designated for the different parties, has been contested as too short with various parties appealing to the supreme court for more time.

The Court of Appeal in August of 2021 upheld the High Court decision that declared the BBI constitutional push as unconstitutional. The appeals court equally held that the president unprocedurally initiated the push to change the supreme law.

Attorney General Kihara Kariuki leads the appeal to have the infamous reggae tunes rent the air once again.

The AG has contested the Court of Appeal decision on the foundation of the basic structure, arguing that  that all clauses in the country’s constitution are amendable and that the president as the Head of State has the right to initiate change to the Constitution.

With the Court of Appeal ruling that the president can be sued, the AG wants the decision quashed holding that the president enjoys constitutional immunity

The president on his part through lawyer Waweru Gatonye has contested the appeals court verdict on being sued and want the decision overturned as well as the right of the president to initiate changes to the constitution protected.

Odinga and the BBI secretariat want the supreme court to find that there was adequate public participation in the constitution review process and that the BBI secretariat as the initiator of the constitutional change as opposed to the Court of Appeal finding that the president kick-started the exercise.

The President has been consistent that the country is on a constitutional moment and the move to change the supreme law had just been paused but will be realized in fullness of time

IEBC on its part wants the Supreme Court to uphold that the commission was constitutionally constituted with the requisite quorum.

The commission also wants to be distanced from verifying whether the promoters of the referendum bill undertook public participation. The electoral commission argues its mandate is limited to facilitating the referendum exercise.