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- Kenya’s top court ruled that any bid to change the constitution was illegal, dealing a body blow to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s effort to amend the constitution ahead of key elections in August.
Kenya’s top court ruled that any bid to change the constitution was illegal, dealing a body blow to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s effort to amend the constitution ahead of key elections in August. Majority of the judges, which heard the case, said that the president cannot initiate constitutional amendments or changes through popular initiative under article 257 of the constitution. This goes against Kenyatta’s proposal to expand the executive.
However, the court left open the possibility for the reforms — popularly known as the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) — to be instituted by parliament or through other means, so long as the president did not have a hand in the changes. The reforms would have been the biggest change to Kenya’s political system since the introduction of a new constitution in 2010.
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The initiative has left the East African nation’s political elite divided. Kenyatta had argued that the change would make politics more inclusive and help end repeated cycles of election violence. The decision came after the High Court and Court of Appeal ruled against the proposed amendments last year. The appeals court even said Kenyatta could be sued in a civil court for launching the process. But the Supreme Court ruled against this idea.
BBI’s detractors say the plan was to grab power by a two-term president who cannot run a third time. They allege that Kenyatta was seeking to remain in power by establishing the post of prime minister as part of the BBI.
