In Kenya, the Supreme Court has blocked a push for the most far-reaching constitutional changes in more than a decade.

The Building Bridges Initiative - dubbed "reggae" by some BBI - pushed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga has not been properly launched, said Presiding Judge Martha Koome.

Kenyan media had spoken of a "D-Day" and a groundbreaking decision just a few months before the parliamentary and presidential elections.

TV stations broadcast the several-hour-long verdict live.

Claudia Bröll

Freelance Africa correspondent based in Cape Town.

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The constitutional changes would have been the most far-reaching since 2010, when a new basic law came into force in Kenya.

This included increasing the number of constituencies and thus the number of parliamentarians by 70.

New posts were also to be created, among other changes, such as a prime minister with two deputies, an official leader of the parliamentary opposition and an ombudsman for the judiciary.

“Elections in Kenya have become a curse”

Kenyatta and his supporters had campaigned for the initiative for years.

According to them, the goal was a broader participation of the ethnic groups.

In particular, the riots during elections could be contained in this way, it said.

Traditionally, many voters in Kenya vote for a representative of their ethnic group.

"Elections in Kenya have become a curse," said a BBI report.

After every election there is violence and people lose their lives.

1200 people were killed in 2007, almost 100 in 2017.

A political system in which "winner takes all" exacerbates ethnic tensions because people want one of their own as president who decides how resources are allocated, the report goes on to say.

Elections should no longer be events in which "a matter of life and death" is at stake.

"We need a political system in which more communities have the opportunity to participate in the government of Kenya."

Critics, on the other hand, spoke of a move by the president to secure further political influence.

Elections will be held in Kenya in a good four months.

Kenyatta may not run again after two terms in office, but in 2018 he surprisingly pledged support to his arch-rival Raila Odinga.

Odinga is running in a presidential election for the fifth time this year.

With a view to the BBI initiative, there is speculation that Kenyatta could have assumed the new post of prime minister after Odinga had won the elections.

This would have preserved the influence of the Kenyatta and Odinga families, who have shaped Kenya's politics since independence.

Odinga's main opponent in the elections, today's Vice President William Ruto, rejected the initiative.

He calls them "monsters"

President not empowered to amend the constitution

The Supreme Court followed the decision of the two previous court instances.

They had declared the procedure for the constitutional amendments last year to be "unconstitutional, null and void".

As the High Court justices explained at the time, the law does not give the president the power to initiate constitutional amendment through a referendum;

only Parliament and the people would have that power.

The Court of Appeal shared the view, as does the Supreme Court now.

"I concur with both courts in finding that the president should not intervene as an actor and arbiter in the constitutional amendment process," said Koome, the country's first female chief justice.

A referendum is a means of direct democracy, and direct democracy can only be exercised by the people, not by their representatives.

With the court decision, the “Building Bridges Initiative” should be off the table for the time being.

From the point of view of analysts, the previous judgments had already damaged the reputation of the initiative.

Presidential candidate Odinga had already announced a new attempt last year.

BBI Reggae is at halftime, he said, but "no one can stop reggae."