Stop abusing power donated to you by Kenyans, MCAs tell Judiciary over BBI Bill ruling

A section of MCAs drawn from the 47 County Assemblies have faulted the Judiciary over the recent High Court ruling that declared the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Bill unconstitutional.

The MCAs said 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.

They expressed disappointment and dissatisfaction with the ruling saying it sets a treacherous and hopeless path for the country.

“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.

“…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).”

It further added: “…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 added that, by holding that the BBI committees are illegal, the court took away the president’s constitutional duty to enhance national unity.

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

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

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

According to them, in the event the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court adopts the said judgment, then Kenyans will suffer in that county funds will remain at 15% of the national revenue instead of the 35% proposed in the BBI Bill.

They further stated that 1,450 wards in Kenya will not get a constitutional development fund hence governors will not develop some wards.