Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chair Wafula Chebukati has given an update on the BBI signature verification exercise.
According to the commission, 544,624 signatures have so far been captured by the end of today.
The Commission together with promoters of the BBI constitutional amendment initiative today carried out a joint inspection of the ongoing BBI supporters verification exercise at Bomas of Kenya pic.twitter.com/8JKeismWd3
— IEBC (@IEBCKenya) January 8, 2021
Chebukati further revealed that the verification exercise will be completed within the commission’s stipulated time frame.
“The exercise is being undertaken in a transparent manner and in the presence of accredited observers and agents of the promoters of the initiative,” Chebukati said.
Read: Chebukati Criticizes BBI Recommendations on Commission, Labels them an Attack
In a different account of events last week, the commission was forced to issue an apology after facing backlash online following a tweet referring to President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga’s pet project, Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), as a “Burning Bridges Initiative”.
In a statement shared on its social media pages, the commission termed the blunder as a typographical error that was made inadvertently.
“The error does NOT any in way reflect the position of the Commission or its staff. The Commission sincerely apologizes to all its stakeholders and the General Public,” read the statement.
The tweet, which was deleted sparked debate on social media with a section of Kenyans accusing the electoral body of bias.
Read Also: IEBC Apologizes For Tweet Referring To BBI As Burning Bridges Initiative
IEBC was notifying members of the public that the verification exercise of the recently submitted BBI signatures had kicked off.
“The 400 clerks who were recruited for the exercise have taken their oath of secrecy and will begin their training shortly, ” said IEBC.
The vacancies were advertised on December 19.
The National Treasury recently approved Sh93.7 million funding to the commission for the verification of the over four million signatures.
IEBC had sought Sh241 million from the exchequer to review the signatures submitted by the BBI Secretariat, a proposal that was criticized by Odinga.
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