The Coalition of Reforms and Democracy’s (CORD) movement dubbed Okoa Kenya, which was aimed at calling for a referendum in order to amend the constitution, hit a snag yesterday after the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) announced that the opposition did not get the 1 million signature threshold as stipulated by law.

According to a statement released yesterday by the IEBC, the number of valid registered voters supporting the OKOA Kenya initiative stood at 891,598.

“Therefore, the commission wishes to declare that the OKOA Kenya proposal to amend the Constitution initiative has collapsed by operation of the law,” read the statement by the  IEBC chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan.

Article 257(4) of the Constitution states that: “The promoters of a popular initiative shall deliver the draft Bill and the supporting signatures to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, which shall verify that the initiative is supported by at least one million registered voters.”

The ruling by IEBC comes just days after CORD leader Raila Odinga accused the electoral body of deliberately delaying the process of verifying the signatures.

Cord launched the Bill for the amendment of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 in November last year.