Veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho has cast serious doubts on the highly anticipated Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) after its two proponents failed to unveil the report.
In what the journalist describes as a deliberate cover-up of the differences between President Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga over the BBI, Kenyans remain rife with speculation.
The report which emerged after the March 9, 2018 Handshake between Kenyatta and Odinga has taken unusually long to unveil after it was touted to produce a silver bullet to Kenya’s troubles.
Two factions have since emerged in the ruling Jubilee Party, with one in full support of the BBI (despite its contents being undisclosed) and another group which views the report as a stumbling block on DP Ruto’s 2022 Presidential ambitions.
According to Gaitho, President Kenyatta has been globe-trotting ostensibly to buy time and allow the BBI team to iron out the differences therein.
While Odinga has been publicly projecting a people’s plebiscite in the adoption of the BBI report, President Kenyatta never speaks of the contents of the BBI report apart from the promise that it would bring lasting peace.
The report is highly speculated to take Kenyans back to a Parliamentary system with a powerful Prime Minister in charge of Government business.
This has been the bone of contention which threatens Deputy President William Ruto’s chances of becoming a powerful President should he vie and win in 2022.
This has been worsened by the fact that only representatives from President Kenyatta and Raila Odinga were given the mandate to steer the report and develop recommendations.
DP Ruto was kept in the dark about the handshake, a matter he outrightly protested in public rallies.
The Deputy President accused Odinga of attempting to drive a wedge between him and the President. Odinga has since formed a nearly inextricable bond with the President.
BBI Taskforce Secretaries Martin Kimani (on President Kenyatta’s side) and Paul Mwangi (on Odinga’s side) have since stated that the report is ready.
However, President Kenyatta and Odinga have since remained mum on the issue after failing to slot time and table the report to Parliament.
If the recommendations are approved by Parliament, Kenyans would be saved from the vagaries of another referendum which may further widen the ethnic current ethnic rifts.