The battle to save BBI moves to the Court of Appeal after Attorney General Paul Kihara filed a notice of appeal for the judgement dismissed as a sham by BBI promoters.
It emerged that a team of top lawyers and constitutional experts have combed through the judgement and found up to fourteen errors/flaws that form very strong ground for appeal.
The five-judge bench that delivered the judgement that also called for the impeachment of President Uhuru, were reminded that even former Chief Justice David Maraga gave his views to the BBI steering committee.
Top city lawyer Donald Kipkorir had already identified five fundamental errors in the judgement which he said were already very good grounds for a successful appeal.
At the same time, 44 county assemblies that endorsed the BBI Bill have reacted with anger following the shocking judgement that declared BBI illegal. The MCAs under their caucus dismissed the judgement as misplaced and accused the judges of engaging in politics and failing to appreciate what BBI seeks to cure.
They termed the BBI judgement as a threat to sovereign powers of the people, national unity and devolution and promised to fight on, and an invitation to political turmoil.
They said should the judgement stand devolution will be on its death bed because BBI had very good proposals on how to strengthen the devolved units key among them raising the sharerable revenue to 35% and the Ward Fund.
The MCAs warned that judicial tranny must stop as such interpretation of the Constitution will easily land the country into worse Post-Election Violence than 2007 and condemn Kenyans to eternal economic regression.
With this background in mind, the historic handshake between President Kenyatta and Rt. Hon Raila Odinga on 9th March 2018 coming in the background of the “swearing in” of the latter was not just unprecedented and shocking but a big relief and a major peace milestone in the country and the world at large.
The MCAs said no one can dispute the fact that it was a political ceasefire which gave “Project Kenya” another opportunity to redeem and transform itself, resolve entrenched historical grievances, issues and conflicts that have bedeviled the country for ages.
“We must remind ourselves, as Kenyans, that while court orders have in the past sparked politically motivated violence, court orders have never stopped and cannot indeed stop such violence. Only negotiated political compromise can resolve political stalemates or crisis,” the statement said.
They said the Task Force held county halls meetings in all the 47 counties where all cadres of persons participated, where over 40 stakeholders’ meetings at KICC in Nairobi with key interests’ groups that included; SME traders, IDPs, religious groups, youth and women groups, trade unions, teachers, doctor’s unions, professional groups, private sector business lobbies, NGOs, county and national government organs including the Chief Justice then, David Maraga, on behalf of the Judiciary, and Speakers of Parliament were held.
“All Kenyans also had an opportunity to submit written views on the 9-point agenda,” they said.