Mudavadi: Revised BBI report should quell rebellion 

Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi has declared the amendments to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report should persuade critics to abandon their resistance and ensure a non-contested referendum.

Mr Mudavadi urged Kenyans to fully support the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020, as it had significant amendments to contentious issues and incorporated new proposals by various sectors.

Mr Mudavadi, however, clarified that ANC will run a parallel campaign to market BBI saying they will not join forces with the established secretariat chaired former Dagoreti South MP Denis Waweru and Suna East lawmaker Junet Mohamed.

“As a party we will form our own platform that we will use to popularise the document,” the former vice president said.

The party yesterday resolved to collect at least two million signatures out of the four million targeted by the BBI secretariat.

At the same time, Mr Mudavadi also stated that the political formation for the forthcoming referendum should be not be misconstrued to be the same alignment that will be in place for the 2022 elections.

“This position that we have taken today does not have anything to do with the 2022 polls. Formations change and what we have at the moment will be different with what we will have in 2022,” he explained. 

He listed the deletion of controversial proposals for political parties to nominate poll commissioners and the formation of a Kenya Police Council among the changes. 

The dropping of the proposal to have parties appoint commissioners at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will enhance the electoral body’s independence, he explained. 

Mr Mudavadi also noted changes to the recruitment of the Judiciary Ombudsman, additional roles for the Senate and the deletion of transfer of functions from Nairobi County to the newly created Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) as other major changes incorporated in the Bill.

Non-contested referendum

“The verdict of ANC is that this document has been significantly improved and all Kenyans should come together and support it with a view to having a smooth and non-contested referendum,” Mr Mudavadi said.

“I want to urge Kenyans to read the document and understand it, should you still not agree with it, then you have a right to reject it,” he added. 

“The biggest gain Kenyans had under the 2010 constitution was devolution. The earlier proposal to move all functions of Nairobi County to NMS was going to derail devolution and the practice could have been extended to other counties,” Mr Mudavadi remarked. 

“You don’t change the law because you have a bad leader, let us just make better choices at the ballot,” he said.

The ANC party leader also lauded the anchoring of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) on the constitution.

“CDF is now proposed to be established in the constitution. For many years now, CDF has greatly impacted lives of many Kenyans in all areas of the country. But it had been declared unconstitutional by the High Court hence the need for its creation in the constitution. This is progressive as it will give it a proper legal standing to carry on its work,” Mr Mudavadi said.

He also supported changes to the functions of the Senate saying they will enhance oversight of resources devolved to counties.

“The Senate has now been strengthened by having a key role to play in the enactment of Bills on finances to the counties, positions the Senate adequately to oversight devolved governance and protect public resources,” Mr Mudavadi said.

On the recruitment of the Judiciary Ombudsman, Mr Mudavadi pointed out that the new proposal where the office holder will be vetted by the senate gives the office a seal of approval by people’s representatives.

Kakamega senator and ANC deputy party leader Cleophas Malala said with the incorporation of the party’s proposals, they are now ready to hit the ground and drum up support for the document.