The Senate has passed the proposed constitutional amendments through the BBI Bill without amendments.
On Tuesday afternoon, 51 senators voted for the bill, while 12 senators voted against it.
The vote comes less than a week after the National Assembly voted in favor of the Bill, with the BBI proponents forecasting a referendum in late July or early August.
The Senate speaker Kenneth Lusaka is now expected to transmit the Senators verdict to President Uhuru Kenyatta, for onward transmission to the electoral body-IEBC.
Earlier in the day, the Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka in a letter to senators, Speaker Lusaka said that Parliament which is tasked with representing the people’s will cannot claim to go against the will of the people who have clearly expressed themselves.
“It is a path taken by citizens who recognize that all sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya, as stated in Article 1 of the Constitution, and that the people of Kenya may exercise their sovereign power directly or through democratically elected representatives,” he said.
“I am persuaded that a proper construction of the Constitution leads us to the conclusion that Parliament’s delegated power to exercise the sovereignty of the people by representing their will does not and cannot extend to subverting, altering or substituting that will with its own wisdom, where the people have unequivocally expressed themselves,” he concluded
Meanwhile, the decision on constitutionality of the BBI process now lies in the hands of five judges which comprise of Justice Chacha Mwita, Joel Ngugi, George Odunga, Jarius Ngaah and Janet Mulwa.
The bench of those judges will listen to the petitions filed by various petitioners who include economist David Ndii, Kenya National Union of Nurses, Thirdway Alliance, 254Hope, Justus Juma and Moraa Omoke who have all questioned the BBI process to amend the Constitution terming it a dangerous move.