In his quest to overturn the Court of Appeal judgment that stopped the amendment of the constitution through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), Attorney General(AG) Paul Kihara Kariuki has now moved to the Supreme Court.

In a petition filed by Solicitor General Ken Ogeto, the AG wants the top court to squash the August verdict citing 10 thematic areas as grounds for appeal.

He argues that the judges’ decision on the basic structure doctrine, popular initiative, public participation and creation of new constituencies should be reviewed by Chief Justice Martha Koome alongside the 7-judge bench.

In his petition, the CJ should also review the Court of Appeal judgment on the questions of presidential immunity, the quorum of IEBC in the verification of signatures supporting the Constitution Amendment Bill 2020 and the adequacy of legal infrastructure to support the voter verification exercise.

Kihara has also asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the Appellate judge’s verdict on the issue of single or multiple referendum questions, how voter registration relates to holding of a referendum and who ought to have been enjoined as friends of the court in the BBI bill matter.

In her judgment delivered on Friday, August 20, Sichale ruled that the President cannot be Wanjiku and therefore cannot initiate the process of amending the Constitution through a popular initiative.

BBI was ruled out with judges arguing that the president cannot be a ‘Wanjiku’- a common citizen – and therefore cannot, by all means, initiate the process of amending the Constitution through a popular initiative.

“By conduct, Uhuru cannot be a wanjiku for the purposes of Article 257 of the constitution. The President is President 24/7 and cannot initiate changes to the constitution as provided in Article 257,” Judge Sichale ruled.