Referendum law key to guide amendment of the 2010 Constitution

In 2015, while working for the Constitutional Implementation Commission, we pleaded with Parliament to enact a referendum law to govern the process of amending the Constitution. In its element, Parliament filed this away to deal with more pressing projects. Four years later, it is becoming obvious that the absence of a referendum law may lead to a constitutional quagmire. On one hand, there is no law that sets out the procedural issues that will arise in the referendum processes.

The Elections Act concerns itself with referenda arising out of a parliamentary initiative and gives little guidance on the procedures relating to referenda arising from popular initiatives. On the other hand, the Constitution and the Elections Act law do not address several substantive issues including what is to be done if several popular initiatives with conflicting proposals are presented to the IEBC at the same time.