MCAs Take on Judiciary over BBI Bill Ruling

A group of MCAs from the 47 County Assemblies has accused the Judiciary of abuse of power over last week’s High Court ruling that declared the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Bill unconstitutional.

According to the ward reps, the ruling overturned the direct sovereignty of the millions of Kenyans that supported the bill as well as the 43 County Assemblies and both the National Assembly and the Senate that passed it.

“The judgment does not acknowledge that a Constitution is a living document that must be responsive to the needs and desires of a society at any given time. It presupposes that Kenyans are prisoners of the 2010 Constitution and the 2010 Constitution was made for a tiny minority of Kenyans and in this case the Judiciary and civil society groups not the larger majority of Kenyans,” said the MCAs in a statement issued on Sunday.

The MCAs further claimed the ruling sets a treacherous and hopeless path for the country.

“…by holding that some sections of the Constitution cannot be amended whether by popular or parliamentary initiative or what they generally term as “eternity clauses”, the judges boldly and without any solid analysis took away the sovereign powers of the people enshrined in Article 1 (1).”

“…this means that regardless of the social, political or economic issues that Kenyans face at any given time they cannot constitutionally change the constitution unless they then resort to anarchy either through a civilian or military coup!”

They also claimed the court took away the president’s constitutional duty to enhance national unity.

The MCAs demanded that respondents in the case appeal the decision and all county assemblies that were listed as interested parties enter appearance.

They also want the “Judiciary to stop robbing Kenyans of their direct sovereign powers or abusing the delegated indirect powers donated to them by Kenyans.”

Further, the lawmakers called upon Kenyans to demands accountability from the Judiciary, claiming “such interpretation of the Constitution will easily land the country into worse Post-Election Violence than 2007 and condemn Kenyans to eternal economic regression.”

source http://nairobiwire.com/2021/05/mcas-take-on-judiciary-over-bbi-bill-ruling.html