Keep chiefs out of BBI

The general expectation from the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) is that Kenyans will freely participate in it. It should be possible right from the launch of the collection of a million signatures for a referendum to amend the Constitution.

The envisaged changes should eventually reflect the will of the majority through the vote. However, we seem to have started on the wrong footing by getting chiefs involved in the collection of signatures.

This is a political process, and as has become quite evident, two groups with different stands have emerged. While the group gravitating around President Kenyatta and his handshake ally, ODM leader Raila Odinga, want the referendum Bill passed so that constitutional amendments can be made, some other politicians and civil society groups are opposed to this. This is not unusual in a truly democratic system.

It means that Kenyans need not always agree on everything. Those with misgivings about the proposed changes and the ones pushing for them must be free to do so.

However, administration officials, such as chiefs, must remain neutral. After all, their duty, as government officials is to serve all Kenyans irrespective of their political views and affiliation. They must ensure law and order as the rival camps sell their views before the vote.

It must, therefore, be made clear from the outset that this is not a government project that all must by fiat support; it’s a means through which the people will exercise their civic right by voting Yes or No. County commissioners, their deputies, chiefs and their assistants must stay out of it.

The threats and setting of signature collection targets for chiefs must be denounced by right thinking Kenyans. It is tantamount to a return to the repressive Kanu single-party dictatorship that Kenyans fought so hard to remove, culminating into the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution. Any attempts to erode the democratic gains must be rejected.