Following the approval of his Punguza Mizigo referendum push, Third Way Alliance party leader Ekuru Aukot has become a threat to a section of leaders who have been pushing for a separate referendum.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga have been pushing for constitutional changes but now seem to have been caught flatfooted.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Thursday approved 1.2 of the 1.4 million signatures which Aukot had presented for scrutiny by the commission.
With the law dictating that a person seeking to implement changes in the constitution present one million signatures, Aukot has cruised past the first section of the test.
Consequently, this exposes the nation to a possible referendum, probably next year, which comes as a blow to Uhuru and Raila, who have been pushing for an expanded government.
Aukot, on the other hand, is pushing to have elective seats reduced.
This will, therefore, force the two to go back to the drawing board to consider other ways of realising their push, putting into consideration that it will be impossible to their referendum bid to materialise with Aukot's also looming.
This will also negatively affect the Uhuru-Raila founded Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) whose proposals will be useless should they require a referendum unless they manage to convince Aukot to join them and adopt their ideas.
With the Bill now set to be taken to the Country Assemblies where it only needs the backing of 24 assemblies, former Committee of Experts CEO Nzamba Kitonga says that it's as good as approved and the nation is headed for changes.
“If it passes through the County Assembly, whether Parliament passes it or not is immaterial, it will have to go through a referendum,” he told the Standard on Friday.
Nyeri County Assembly Speaker John Kaguchia told the paper that his assembly has since received the proposal for approval.
"Having received the Punguza Mizigo proposals in Nyeri County Assembly I will organise for sessions for members to objectively ventilate on all the proposals given. It’s expected that the MCAs will then make either an individual or collective stand on the proposals that shall inform the outcome of the vote,” he said.
The push is also very likely to cause confusion to both the ruling Jubilee Party and the opposition in the 2022 polls, and if passed, it will see presidents enjoy a single seven-year term.