Don’t let politicians decide BBI for you

The Building Bridges Initiative has to brace for a difficult journey ahead. Already, there are discordant voices on various proposals and all linked to power and politics.

When President Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga launched the report last month, the rallying call was for Kenyans to read and familiarise themselves with the document and, consequently, make informed proposals to improve it.

The term of the taskforce has since been extended to enable it to collect more views on how to improve the document and guide its execution. Opinion is again divided with critics questioning the rational of having those who prepared the document lead its implementation. Others eerily reckon that the principals must have detected loopholes in the document and are, therefore, looking for a roundabout way of making corrections.

Substantively, however, various groups and formations have started raising issues about what they want the final document to contain. For example, the Opposition party ODM and a group of leaders from the Mt Kenya region have proposed that the position of Prime Minister, proposed in the report, should be executive. As currently crafted, the position is subservient to the presidency with the occupant being just the first among equals.

This thinking of an enhanced role of the PM serves to nourish a narrative that there could be a deal between President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga that undergirds their truce and the subsequent ‘handshake’ in March last year, and which gave birth to BBI; that the two leaders could be working behind the scenes to create a structure to serve their own interest. The jury is still out on that.

Even so, in all discourse, there is less activity from the general populace. It’s the politicians calling the shots and this is fraught with challenges. When the public shirk away and let the politicians take charge, the outcome is often perilous. Politicians are sure to lead everyone astray. They are selfish by nature and, even when they agree, it is to serve selfish interest, not the public’s.

Professional groups, religious organisations, organised lobbies and the general public must ensure that they interact with the document and take an interest in the goings-on and make proposals for the common good.

The point we are making is that the public should be alert to stem any plot by the political elite to hijack the BBI report so as to entrench themselves in power. We have always argued that some of the proposals in the report are well taken care of in the Constitution and, therefore, spurious. But since the report in on the table for discussion, the public should get involved and determine the direction of the final proposals.