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Treasury approves Sh93.7m for BBI signature verification

 

The National Treasury has approved Sh93.7 million funding to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission for the verification of BBI signatures.

Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani approved the amount Thursday after deliberations with IEBC managers.

A source at Treasury told the Star that the figure was reached after negotiations with the polls team.

“The agreement was that they use what is available for them to move forward since the request falls within their constitutional mandate,” an official privy to the conversations told the Star.

The IEBC sought Sh241 million from the exchequer to review the signatures recently presented by the BBI Secretariat.

The commission had indicated it would take about 85 days to verify the signatures if their request for Sh241 million was heeded to.

The provision from the Treasury was to be used to hire and train clerks who will verify the signatures.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati and acting CEO Hussein Marjan were by press time yet to respond to the Star's queries on the much that the provided amounts would do.

The IEBC chairman had decried lack of funds to verify the 4.4 million signatures submitted by the Building Bridges Initiative secretariat.

Earlier, Chebukati told the Star the pace of verification will depend on the available budget.

“If we get more money, we will hire more clerks,” he said on Monday, hence likely to take longer in the face of what Treasury has provided.

The situation stands to worsen President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga's nightmare of having the referendum conducted in good time.

The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020, can only be approved in a referendum after it is backed by one million signatures.

If the one million signature threshold is met, the commission is expected to hand over the bill to the 47 county assemblies.

County assemblies will be required to communicate their decision on the bill within 90 days of submission by the IEBC.

The commission recently said it requires Sh14 billion to conduct a plebiscite, figures that have been disputed by ODM leaders and the BBI secretariat.

The time element concern arose from the experience on Punguza Mizigo drive, in which the IEBC took nearly five months to verify 1.4 million signatures, on a budget of about Sh30 million.

Thirdway Alliance party secretary-general Fred Okang’o poked holes in the quest for Sh241 million, saying the process would cost less if simplified.

“The IEBC should tell Kenyans the exact cost of preparation for the referendum, the cost during the vote and the cost after the same,” he said.

Okang'o argued that since IEBC does not have a repository of signatures, it should not complicate the process further.

“A signature is a mark of approval. Some people have 10 signatures. The IEBC should concentrate on the details of a voter and whether the same is appended in the BBI matches the details in the voter register,” he said.

Okang’o said the commission doesn’t need a lot of money if it takes the route of verifying voter details such as polling stations.

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