Siaya Senator James Orengo and Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo have shown optimism on the passing of the amendment Bill 2020.
Speaking during the burial of Mama Keziah Obama, Orengo said that both the Senate and the National Assembly will pass the BBI bill, and what will follow is a campaign to have Kenyans endorse it.
He asked Kenyans to be ready to pass the bill when it gets to them so as to enable a referendum in July 2021.
“Whenever elders sit to discuss an issue, nothing ever goes wrong. We are sure that the senate and national assembly will pass the Bill this week so that preparations for the referendum can begin in earnest,” Orengo told mourners in Kogelo village.
On his part, Rarieda Member of Parliament Otiende Amollo said that they are committed to seeing the BBI is not derailed as it is part of the handshake between President Uhuru and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Otiende said that after the bill is successful at both the Senate and National Assembly, there will be a match to State House.
“We want to make sure that the BBI bill sails through both in the Senate and National Assembly before we launch the match to the State House,” said the Rarieda MP.
The legislator told mourners that the ultimate goal of the bill is to ensure that Raila Odinga clinches the presidency in 2022.
“The ultimate goal of this journey is to have Raila Odinga sworn in as the president,” he said.
The new stand by the two ODM members comes just after the party was split over plans to reopen the BBI report and make amendments to it before presenting it to Kenyans.
This is after it emerged that while Raila’s legal adviser Paul Mwangi was against reopening of erroneous BBI document for amendments, Orengo and Otiende were among the members who wanted the document opened and a few mistakes in it to be corrected.
According to Mwangi, reopening of the document for typographical mistakes to be corrected would deal the final blow to the referendum journey arguing that it will no longer be a popular document since it will a product of the National Assembly.
If they amend the report, it will be a different document from the one passed by county assembly. there will be confusion on which of the two should go to the referendum.
Orengo and Otiende on the other side insisted that reopening of the document will have no effect since the purpose of the law was not to reduce powers of the Parliament.
“Let us not allow vanity to prevail in this issue. the precedence of parliaments role was established by the committee of experts which drafted the Constitution,” Orengo argued.
However, this did not materialize as the ODM party, through its chairman John Mbadi gave an order to its members to pass the bill as it is.
