BBI success depends on selling idea to Kenyans
The proposed constitutional review process enters a definitive stage after the electoral agency certified that its promoters have attained the requisite signatures to enable it progress. In terms of constitutional requirements, the proposed constitutional review bill will now be taken to the county assemblies for debate and approval. Depending on the outcome of the vote, the bill will then progress to the referendum stage.
But this is the crux of the matter. First, it will require a lot of lobbying to get at least 24 counties, which is more than half of the devolved units, to ratify the bill, failure of which the review plan collapses. Secondly, and this is quite vexed, is unpacking the proposals to facilitate constructive engagements among the citizens and allow for informed decision-making.
Since the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report was released last year and, thereafter, the constitutional bill published, little has been done to sensitise the public about the real issues under discussion. Instead, the debate has been politicised and focus shifted to mobilising for the 2022 presidential election rather than highlighting the issues and making it possible for the citizens to understand them. Regions are being balkanised either to support or oppose the proposals yet the residents do not understand what the facts are. An extension of this is rising political temperatures and acts of violence.
Given this context, it is paramount for the BBI principals, President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, to fulfill the promise they made — namely, to widely publicise the report to ensure that the citizens are fully sensitised. More pertinently, the constitutional reform process should be persuasive, not coercive. Mwananchi should be convinced, not forced, to support or oppose it. BBI faces resistance in some places as it is being pushed down the throat of the citizens, raising questions about its objective. The success or failure of BBI depends on how its promoters handle the next stages.
