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Wiper party  leader Kalonzo Musyoka disclosed yesterday that a separate team will be formed to draft the referendum question once the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) taskforce submits its findings to President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga this month.

Kalonzo said contrary to earlier claims  that BBI was working on the referendum, another team that includes lawyers will be tasked to draft constitutional changes.

“Others are thinking that the BBI is coming up with recommendations to amend the Constitution. Far from it; they will just come and make a report to the appointing authority,” he said.

He spoke at the party’s headquarters in Karen after a meeting with some Mt. Kenya leaders from Nyeri, who declared support for his presidential bid in 2022.

Nyeri branch deputy chair Ann Kanyi claimed the region is certain that the former vice-president will steer the country in the right direction.

“We have been searching for someone who has no track record of being vindictive, a leader who is patriotic and that is why we say that our search for a president has ended today. We will support Kalonzo,” she said.

At the same time, Kalonzo accused Deputy President William Ruto of using cash from suspicious sources to fund his political machinery, top being his church donations.

Change tune

“It is sad that leaders are throwing around weight, and we all know that it is corruption money and they want to claim that they are making progress,” he said.

Kalonzo also hinted that Kenya would  not accept the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling on its maritime border dispute with Somalia.

He warned that by allowing ICJ to arbitrate on the dispute, the two nations were sitting on a diplomatic powder keg that could explode and dent the relations between Nairobi and Mogadishu.

The former Foreign Affairs minister  urged Mogadishu to open diplomatic channels.

Last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Somalia counterpart Mohamed Farmajo agreed to resolve the boundary impasse through a negotiated process before the latter changed tune and insisted that ICJ was better placed to resolve the dispute.