The secretariat charged with spearheading the BBI referendum will on Friday submit signatures to the IEBC, the Star has established.
On Tuesday, it was a hive of activities at the Daraja House – the Secretariat offices– where verification of the 5.6 million signatures continued late in the evening.
The team started the verification exercise on Friday last week. The process was expected to end on Tuesday.
As the verification was going on, another team was scanning the physical signature documents ahead of presentation to the electoral agency.
“The secretariat is tentatively working with Friday this week as the day when we shall submit the document,” a source at the secretariat told the Star.
ODM leader Raila Odinga last week received the signatures at Daraja House offices, where he officially closed a five-day nationwide signature collection drive.
The submission of the signatures in essence means the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020 is locked and no amendments can be incorporated as being demanded by some quarters led by Deputy President William Ruto.
The DP’s camp has made a list of demands, including having the referendum and the 2022 General Election held on the same day and the introduction of multiple choices referendum.
The development also slams the door on Ruto’s calls for consensus-building and, depending on his next steps, might see the country hold a contested referendum.
Upon receiving the signatures, the IEBC will then verify that the Bill is supported by at least one million registered voters, and if satisfied, submit the Bill to each of the 47 county assemblies.
The assemblies will have three months from the date it is submitted to consider the Bill.
At least 24 counties must pass the Bill for it to proceed to Parliament, where it will be introduced as a formality, since whichever direction the MPs decide the Bill will go to the people in a referendum.