BBI can be revived — by citizens

Accept and move on. I don’t recall who specifically came up with this tired mantra of the Jubilee Party zombies in their reaction to Opposition leader Raila Odinga’s refusal to accept the 2017 presidential election results, having similarly refused to concede to two previous defeats.

The unsolicited and self-serving advice was the reflex response of the hordes that believed their ethnic coalition had the divine right to rule Kenya in tandem for eternity. Jubilee came with a sense of entitlement which held that no upstart from outside the ethnic duopoly had the right to question stolen elections, monopoly of political power by a small grouping, serial appropriation of the national wealth and all the other injustices and abuses of power that have failed Kenya since Independence.

If asked, I would this time advise President Kenyatta and his ‘brother’ Raila to ‘accept and move on’.

I don’t mean that they should not appeal last week’s judgment by the High Court that declared their Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) unconstitutional. Indeed, they must appeal — if only to seek clarity on some of the questionable declarations put forth by Justice Joel Ngugi’s bench.

Misfortune

What I mean is that the President and the putative Opposition leader must accept that they are the authors of their own misfortune.

One fatal mistake was running the BBI constitutional amendments as a presidential project while cloaking it as a popular initiative. Another was neglecting to properly win the buy-in of citizens. Then there was allowing noble goals to play second fiddle to political engineering.

I must declare here that I was an early convert to the March 9, 2018 ‘Handshake’ between Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga that helped to end a generational feud that went back to their fathers.

As made clear numerous times on this page, I was sold not just on the political truce between two individuals or families but on the lofty principles and objectives enumerated.

BBI was built on the quest for national unity and tackling the ethnicised political culture that breeds electoral violence. It was about just and equitable political, economic and social systems where no group or community must be forever marginalised and denied its rightful place in the scheme of things.

Divided Kenyans

Unfortunately, the project divided rather than brought together Kenyans. Deputy President William Ruto became the untitled leader of the opposition to the BBI and anything to do with Mr Odinga. He also grabbed much of President Kenyatta’s political constituency as Jubilee split down the middle. Well, maybe a fractured Jubilee is not a bad thing, after all, considering its role in the misrule of Kenya as heir of Kanu’s reign of theft, plunder and destruction.

From the opposition side, the BBI left Mr Odinga’s opposition coalition in disarray. His National Super Alliance (Nasa) partners Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula were early foes of the BBI after being left off the banquet table, though eventually wooed on board.

Mr Odinga also lost faithful allies amongst civil society, who, outside his traditional base of support, have been his most dependable partners in adding intellectual heft to his efforts in political strategy, alliance building and crafting of policies and programmes.

Some of those civil society denizens played key roles in the court case that brought down the BBI with some even formally crossing over to a Ruto campaign that is well-populated with Jubilee propagandists who labelled them ‘Evil Society’.

Politics does make for strange bedfellows.

The High Court ruling must not be the death of BBI but the spur to revive it under the original goals and aspirations, divorced from the 2022 General Election and the quest for power. Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga could well redeem themselves if they went back to their original agenda and bequeathed it to the citizens to drive the initiative without the control of State bureaucrats and greedy politicians.

The citizens might, therefore, want to take a close look at windows of opportunity granted by the High Court ruling. It alluded to a Constituent Assembly as one way the people can drive constitutional change. This reminds me of how often this page has pushed for a ‘Kenya We Want’ convention on BBI.

There was also the citizen-led 1997 Ufungamano House push for a new Constitution that threatened to transform itself into a Constituent Assembly, causing panic in Parliament and State House.

Yes, my ‘un-learned’ comprehension tells me that the court said the citizens can take charge of their own destiny. They can bypass the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary, overthrow the established order and install a revolutionary regime through popular participation. Viva!

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