Karua, Kibwana: Stand firm, fight, reject BBI report

Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua and Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana have urged Kenyans to reject the Building Bridges Initiative reforms as a repudiation of the "arrogance" of President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM boss Raila Odinga.

The two leaders said the nation should instead reform the “broken” electoral system.

“We must reject the BBI because of the handshake brothers’ utter contempt for Kenyans,” Ms Karua said on Friday during the annual Narc-Kenya alumni dinner at Sarova Panafric in Nairobi.

Prof Kibwana was the chief guest.

The former Justice Minister questioned the rationale of pushing on with the referendum in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and demanded that the government sets aside funds to support testing and treatment in all public facilities.

She also noted that fixing articles 10 and 86 should be the main focus of the Kenyatta administration to renew the fight against graft and reform the electoral process to make it transparent and ensure accountability.

Fight against corruption

Ms Karua assailed the President’s State of the Nation address because it was short on the fight against corruption.

iting the recent claims of corruption in Covid-19 related procurement, Ms Karua accused the government of ‘selective amnesia’ in the war against corruption. She was equally angered by Mr Odinga’s declaration that there would be no fresh submissions to the BBI report other than editorial works.

“President Kenyatta and Raila have rejected us. We should pay back by rejecting their BBI project,” she said, adding that fixing the electoral system and fighting corruption doesn’t necessarily mean amending the Constitution.

“President Kenyatta and Raila want to violate the will of the people at the referendum the same way the will of the people was violated at the 2017 General Election,” she charged.

Prof Kibwana warned that BBI will take Kenya into uncharted territory, arguing that the country’s biggest problem is ethnicity.

“Kenyans need to be bold and stand up against BBI,” he said, accusing the President and Mr Odinga of using the process to form a coalition for the 2022 polls.

“It’s time to fight again and stop changes that will make Kenya lose its trajectory. Be watchful, work hard. Mobilise, stand firm and don’t allow our country to get into uncharted territory.

“The premise of BBI is anchored on an idea of acting to stem the electoral turmoil witnessed in each electoral cycle,” he charged, arguing that the handshake has never been socialised to unite Kenyans.

“It has remained a handshake between two people.”

Negative ethnicity

The governor said the solution to the electoral turmoil is not an amendment to the Constitution but fixing the country’s ethnic-based politics.

“The reason of our electoral turmoil is not a faulty Constitution but the nature of political parties, which are tribal in nature,” said the governor. Prof Kibwana also rejected the proposal for political parties to appoint commissioners to the agency and suggested more discussions to build consensus around the area.

President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga will this week kick-start the process of collecting signatures for the referendum, which has been planned for June next year.

However, Prof Kibwana warned that the process could be illegal as the avenue was custom-made for non-state actors and private citizens, not the government.

He further raised questions as to whether the 12th Parliament is the right body to execute amendments to the Constitution, owing to the questions of its legitimacy after Chief Justice David Maraga advised the President to dissolve it for failure to enact laws related to the gender rule.