Key points from CJ Koome BBI final verdict

These are some of the key points from the Supreme court by Chief Justice Martha Koome on the final verdict of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).

Martha Koome – Chief Justice on BBI final verdict: I have taken time to go through the BBI steering Committee report and there is evidence of public participation with regard to the process as documented.

Martha Koome: State organs have no right to activate the popular initiative. This leads to the conclusion that the popular initiative is a preserve of the citizen popularly known in Kenya as ‘Wanjiku’.

Martha Koome: I disagree with the judgment of the Court of Appeal in regards to Basic Structure.

Martha Koome: The two courts erred in finding a fourth pathway to amending the Constitution.

Martha Koome: Courtesy of our Constitution, we have sufficient arsenals that include our own cannons of interpretation which we must exhaust before borrowing from other jurisdiction.

Martha Koome: The framers of the Constitution whether aware of the Basic Structure Doctrine chose to ring-fence key features from flexible amendment and if it was their intention to provide for eternity clauses nothing would have stopped them.

Martha Koome: The former Constitution was flexible and as a result, Parliament undertook so many amendments that it lost its original character.

Martha Koome: The Constitution is always speaking to the present & future generations, it is not lost that this court is being called upon to provide an impartial & authoritative determination that will guide the courts below and state agencies.

Martha Koome: The history behind the making of the Constitution, cannot be buried & forgotten as it continues to reverberate as the debates & discussions around the Amendment acts back to the process & sacrifices that were made by the Kenyans.

Martha Koome: The history behind the making of the Constitution, cannot be buried & forgotten as it continues to reverberate as the debates & discussions around the Amendment acts back to the process & sacrifices that were made by the Kenyans.