The electoral commission could conclude signature verification drive in two weeks, the Star has established.
A senior Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission official said on Tuesday the 400 clerks hired last week are burning the midnight oil to ensure the task is completed in a fortnight.
“The clerks are working on tight timeliness set by the commission to conclude the physical verification exercise in two weeks,” the IEBC official, who sought anonymity, told the Star.
The clerks were sworn in and took the oath of secrecy on December 30 last year before their orientation and training. They will be paid Sh1,200 per day; altogether they will be paid Sh480,000 per day.
They are sorting, scrutinising, verifying and authenticating the list of registered voters backing the BBI referendum bill.
Proponents of the Building Bridges Initiative submitted 4.4 million signatures to the IEBC.
At least one million valid signatures are required for the Constitution of Kenya (amendment) Bill, 2020, to proceed to the 47 county assemblies for consideration.
The IEBC official said the next phase would be running the verified signatures against the IEBC data bank of the country’s voter register.
“Once the physical verification is dispensed with, the number of personnel would be reduced to nearly a quarter because the next stage would be largely electronic,” he said.
The Constitution does not limit the signature verification period but provides that county assemblies must pass or reject the bill within three months after the IEBC submits the proposed law to them.
The commission was allocated Sh93.7 million by the Treasury to verify the signatures despite having requested Sh241 million.
The BBI secretariat co-chaired by Dennis Weweru and Junet Mohamed, had asked the IEBC to expedite signature verification, saying much of the data clean up had been done by their staff.
The secretariat had said it collected at least 5.2 million signatures from registered voters in support of the BBI Bill to amend the Constitution but reduced them to 4.4 after their audit.
The BBI secretariat roadmap indicates the country should proceed for a referendum by June this year regardless of Parliament’s verdict once the bill is approved by at least 24 county assemblies.
Experts have warned the IEBC holds the key to the country’s timely referendum if it manages to clear the signatures hurdle within or less than a month.
“The law does not dictate the verification timeliness to IEBC. They may delay or expedite the exercise depending on various factors but I know they are cognizant of the huge expectations from Kenyans,” political analyst Dismas Mokua said.
He said given the political goodwill the commission is currently enjoying, it is expected that the IEBC will rise to the occasion and complete the work as soon as possible.