BBI: Pro-reforms team not keen on talks

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his handshake partner Raila Odinga have decided to move on with the implementation of the Building Bridges Initiative report despite concerns raised by Deputy President Ruto and his allies.

Today, Members of the National Assembly and the Senate allied to the President Kenyatta and the ODM leader meet in Naivasha to discuss the way forward. Sources have indicated that the two principals might make an appearance at the meeting.

This meeting and other engagements – including a new team to spearhead the campaigns for the adoption of the proposals – suggest that further engagement as suggested by the DP’s camp may not be on the cards.

"We are headed for Naivasha, but one thing is clear: there will be no reopening of discussion on the report," a source close to the President told the Sunday Nation yesterday.

A selected group of legislators will converge on the Great Rift Valley Lodge starting this evening in an arrangement that has excluded the Tangatanga group.

National Assembly Minority Whip Junet Mohamed confirmed the meeting.

The Sunday Nation established that invitations had been send out to 52 senators, but could not confirm the exact number of members of the National Assembly.

"We will hold a meeting that will be attended by the President and the former Prime Minister Mr Odinga. We want to discuss a raft of issues, including how we can make the document better. Issues like strengthening the Senate and making it an Upper House to enable it effectively discharge its oversight mandate effectively are important,” stated Kiambu Senator Kimani wa Matangi.

"The meeting will be very pivotal in the BBI process. It will set stage for a referendum in the coming months. Legislators will also use the forum to air their grievances and what they want included in the document before the referendum process kicks off,” said another senator. “The legislators will also use the forum to advise on the items in the report, that can go through parliamentary legislation."

It is not clear the basis of invitation but Senate Majority Whip Irungu Kangata said it was based on loyalty to the president.

ODM project

Machakos Town MP Victor Munyaka said it was a pity that leaders were gearing for a contested referendum when the DP had called for a dialogue.

“I was invited to that meeting and I am with the DP in his Mt Kenya tour. The Naivasha meeting confirms our worst fears – that BBI is a Kieleweke and ODM project,” he said.

They are expected to discuss ways to collect signatures to develop a roadmap to the referendum, which has tentatively been scheduled for April next year.

"We will also discuss fate of various bills that are pending in Parliament that impact on BBI. I will propose we withdraw the Bill and collate everything under BBI," Kang’ata said.

The Ward Development Fund Bill is pending mediation. The bill was sponsored by Kang’ata but was rejected by the National Assembly on account that it was a money bill.

The DP and his allies have been pushing for the reopening of the report for an engagement between his side and that of President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga.

On Tuesday, he announced that he was ready for such a dialogue because it was the only way to have a non-contested referendum.

But the Kenyatta–Odinga side insists the process has been subjected to the necessary public participation.

"The DP came to Bomas to submit his views...yet the BBI team has been meeting for the past two years," our source said, noting that the DP’s criticism of the report at Bomas rubbed the President, his handlers and the Steering Committee the wrong way.

"The things he said were not any different from what (Musalia) Mudavadi, Kalonzo (Musyoka), (Francis) Atwoli and the others said. It’s more in the manner of saying them,” said our source.

Need for dialogue

Earlier in the week a group of senators allied to Team Kenya group mooted during the divisive Division of Revenue Formula held discussions with the ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi and agreed on the need for dialogue.

 But Elgeyo Senator Kipchumba Murkomen, a key Ruto ally, dismissed the meeting in Naivasha as a waste of time.

"I hear they want to invite only those who think they can pass the document as it is to the meeting. That is a waste of time,” he told the Sunday Nation.

The Senate leadership held a two-day meeting in which they resolved to push for veto powers through the BBI process.

The current retreats in Naivasha have evoked memories of the clamour for a new constitution in 2010, where MPs met and amended the initial draft by the Committee of Experts and came up with the current Constitution that was ratified in a referendum in August 2010.

President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga are keen to counter resistance to the document, especially following emerging protests by key constituencies like trade unions, women and persons living with disabilities disgruntled with certain proposals.

By Wanjohi Githae, Ibrahim Oruko, Eric Matara and Macharia Mwangi