BBI aftermath: Loss of combined political capital is greater tragedy
Court of Appeal Judges (from right): Justices Francis Tuiyott, Gatembu Kairu, Hannah Okwengu, Daniel Musinga (Presiding Judge and President of the Court of Appeal), Roselyn Nambuye, Patrick Kiage and Fatuma Sichale at the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court buildings in Nairobi on August 20, 2021 during judgement of an appeal filed by the government seeking to revive the BBI Bill.
The Court of Appeal last Friday delivered a sensational death blow to the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill 2020, popularly known as the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
The anti-BBI crusade styled themselves as acting for ‘Wanjiku’ — never mind the undisclosed contractual arrangement between city elites ambitious for political power and Wanjiku, whose only care is peace to go about her daily hustle, security and service delivery.
The court decision, however, is no David-versus-Goliath fable but one loaded with consequential ramifications that many will regret long after the members of the seven-judge Bench have exited the scene. In the morning-after that is coming soon, those celebrating the decision could find themselves wondering if they should have paused to reflect before uncorking the champagne bottles.
Among the reasons is that the celebrations are more about the political scores some think the courts scored on their behalf against their perceived competitors for power than any substantial beef with the BBI Bill. Indeed, even the good judges only faulted the processes and procedures the promoters of the BBI adopted in pursuit of constitutional amendments, not the contents of the bill.
To the lay observer, the decision was based more on some nebulous legal technicalities and less on consideration of the urgent needs of the society that the bill sought to address.
National resources
Kenyans clamour for reforms to address age-old structural problems that resulted in deep-seated perceptions of exclusion, marginalisation, skewed distribution of national resources, opportunities and even discrimination in representation in Parliament.
These are broadly some of the endemic challenges that BBI set out to resolve, the end result being to unlock collective energies pent up in resentment, mistrust, suspicions and even violence over these issues.
In the words of President Uhuru Kenyatta, this was the viable route to promote political stability conducive for predictable greater cooperation for economic growth and investments to generate sufficient wealth to afford the high quality of life envisaged in the Kenya Vision 2030 blueprint. Realisation of these aspirations in the immediate term is now in doubt following the court ruling. The promise of BBI now remains a dream deferred.
Central precondition
National institutions such as the Judiciary are expected to help us, Kenyans, to achieve our collective aspirations, promote stability, safety and self-preservation of society by helping to resolve the issues that imperil them. But to achieve far-reaching reforms that lift the society to a higher trajectory, as envisaged in BBI Bill, is only possible when certain fundamental factors are present, and in positive convergence and alignment.
A central precondition for that is political amity, consensus and a level of mutual trust and statesmanship among and between the key political players of any generation.
The most tragic loss for the country resulting from the court decision is the unnecessary loss of dividends of the rare consensus, co-operation and alignments of a common and mutually agreed programme of action between President Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Twice in the past decade, it is empirically recorded through the ballot box that the two enjoyed near-equal political support among Kenyans in and out of Parliament and, hence, there was no likelihood of either of them pushing through fundamentally radical reforms close to their hearts without the other’s support.
But through the famous “Handshake” of March 9, 2018, and later the BBI Bill, the two had resolved to help in healing a divided society, inspire political stability and confidence of Kenyans in their country through reconstructed executive power-sharing structures, among others.
The courts seem to have missed the forest for the trees; they got bogged down in legal technicalities rather than appreciate the broader vision for a cohesive, stable and robustly growing Kenya.
If the momentum and trajectory of the BBI is lost, the loss of the rare collective political capital that President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga sought to bring to bear in helping Kenya to resolve its knotty historical issues will be the greater tragedy to haunt Kenyans for a long time to come.
skwinga@ gmail.com.
