Uhuru, Raila must save BBI from rejection

As the Building Bridges Initiative Task Force gets set to unveil revised recommendations, it becomes more and more apparent that President Uhuru Kenyatta and his ‘brother’ Raila Odinga must go back to the drawing board.

Many of us from the very beginning supported the Uhuru-Raila “Handshake’” as it promised to deal with the existential issues that divide this nation and all too often spark conflagration. We wanted to see an end to ethnic conflict, divisive politics, economic and social inequities, lopsided development, unchecked corruption and marginalisation of swathes of the country.

Instead, BBI has simply become just another source of political conflict and divisions and been projected as yet another attempt at short-term power-sharing deals.

It will be a hard sell so long as it does not make concrete proposals on the fundamental issues of national survival. If it goes to referendum before securing broad-based trust, confidence and support, chances are, it will suffer humiliating defeat from the contra forces marshalled by Deputy President William Ruto.

President Kenyatta and erstwhile opposition leader Odinga would be naive and foolish to presume that the power of the State machinery or their political clout will deliver on proposals that do not excite their bases. The President’s once-formidable ‘thuraku (safari ant)’ armies are disillusioned and have largely dissipated.

Confused and bewildered

Mr Odinga’s opposition base has been left confused and bewildered since he embarked on dalliance with government that doesn’t allow him to see or hear any evil. The civil society groupings that often provided the intellectual heft and strategic leadership feel abandoned and betrayed.

The ‘brothers’ should do well to remember the last president who led an unpopular constitutional referendum. President Mwai Kibaki’s 2005 push was doomed from the word go, and BBI is headed for similar fate unless its proposers urgently get it back on track. But they must first understand that proposals which do not deliver on the original promises, bridges to national unity, are doomed.

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It was great to see my governor, Joseph ole Lenku, last week host a number of national government top dogs such as Interior Cabinet Secretary and de facto Prime Minister Fred Matiang’i and his Environment and Health colleagues Keriako ole Tobiko and Mutahi Kagwe, respectively, and Inspector-General of Police Hillary Mutyambai.

The feasting must have contributed substantially to reduction of Kajiado’s goat population that must have been worth it given its importance.

Although the meeting dwelt largely on critical security issues in a cosmopolitan county, an important take-home was on plans to position Kajiado as an investment destination.

Kajiado has plenty of untapped potential in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, tourism and leisure industries.

Hostile bureaucracies

Untapped is a story replicated across all counties that are busy running commerce and industry out of town with extortionate taxes and levies and hostile bureaucracies.

But with visionary leadership, Governor ole Lenku has the opportunity to build the Kajiado economy and attain a level of autonomy to banish the dependency syndrome. It would not take rocket science for to transform Kajiado into a veritable paradise as the building blocks are already in place.

The ‘meating’ on September 3 also touched on another important issue. The governor must be commended for spearheading plans to shut the Ngong Town garbage disposal site. It is criminal to have such an eyesore and health hazard in the middle of a heavily populated area, and within a town that aspires to grow into a modern metropolis.

Transfer the problem

It would be equally criminal, however, to simply transfer the problem to another location. The proposed new landfill on the edges of the Ngong Hills Forest is a pristine water tower that we cannot afford to pollute. It is the source of springs that serve the freshwater needs of a large local population and neighbouring Nairobi suburbs. It is also in close proximity to residential areas that, too, do not deserve garbage.

It is incomprehensible that Mr Tobiko has given tacit approval for the dumpsite and the National Environment and Management Authority (Nema) allowed it. How the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation was drawn into supporting such a project — against the wishes of residents, who stand to suffer irreparable harm — need to be investigated.

Kajiado is a large county with plenty of land available away from built-up areas. The Ngong Town dumpsite is being closed for very good reasons, which will be equally applicable if the garbage is simply transferred to other populated zones.

[email protected] www.gaitho.co.ke @MachariaGaitho