Postponing 2022 polls is illegal, William Ruto tells BBI proponents

Deputy President William Ruto has warned against plans by the proponents of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) process to postpone next year’s General Election to allow for changes in the Constitution. The deputy president has said that such a move will be a recipe for chaos.

He said the plans by a small group of powerful individuals, who were hell-bent on taking the country hostage for their own personal and selfish gain, was evidence of the impunity practiced by those in leadership positions.

While drawing from the High Court decision that declared the BBI process illegal and unconstitutional, Dr Ruto said that any plan that would usurp the will of Kenyans by pushing the election forward will be resisted, adding that the rule of law, and a respect for institutions such as courts should be paramount.

 “In fact, some of them are threatening the people of Kenya that if they do not change the Constitution the way they want, then we are going to postpone the election until – whether illegal or not, whether constitutional or not – we must change the Constitution,” said Dr Ruto.

BBI process

“When you hear people speak that way, that is impunity. That is the language of people who practice impunity. It is their way of the highway,” he added.

Dr Ruto’s remarks follows the Thursday statement by Cotu secretary-general Francis Atwoli – a proponent of the BBI process, and a close ally of President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga – who said that Parliament may be asked to push the elections forward to allow for the proposed changes in the Constitution to pass.

The BBI process, a fruit of the March 2018 handshake between President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga, is currently at the Court of Appeal awaiting an appeal hearing scheduled for later this month and early July, a move that some experts have warned could present a timeline challenge for the proposed referendum.

Ideally, and according to the Constitution, a referendum must be held at least one year before the general-election, something Mr Atwoli on Thursday said could be a challenge to the BBI process should the Court Appeal fail to give them a favourable ruling. 

Economic turmoil

“If they (Court of Appeal) don’t give us a ruling we will move to the Supreme Court and if we still don’t get it we will have to start afresh and we will appeal through our parliamentarians to extend the elections by even one year until we get BBI,” Mr Atwoli said.

But speaking to supporters of the UDA party in Seattle, Washington DC in the United States on Saturday, Dr Ruto argued that Kenyans will not be taken for a ride by a small group of politicians, who despite the economic turmoil that the country was facing, were only interested in personal gain.

The DP said that for a long time, a majority of Kenyans had been subjected to personality politics, and the culture of a one-man show, a strategy whose time, he said, had come to an end.

Dr Ruto said that the Hustler Nation and its philosophy and vision was to find a solution to the country’s political, social and economic misfortunes, away from the individualistic politics that the mantra of the BBI process, adding that the Jubilee administration had done well before the handshake.

 “We are in a place where we have two groups with two ideologies, one that believes in the politics of ethnicity and the division of power among few individuals, and the hustlers who believe that the problems facing this country is the economy. The hustler nation is focused on the solutions of how to empower people,” he said.

Dr Ruto said that changes in the Constitution, if must be done, should be a consultative and inclusive process, devoid of the bravado, bulldozing and the chest-thumping currently synonymous with the BBI process, which he said had excluded many, and was blind to the plight of millions of Kenyans.

Additional constituencies

The BBI has proposed among other things, a change in the country’s governance structure though the expansion of the executive and the creation of additional constituencies, proposals that the DP wing of government have opposed as an additional burden to the taxpayer.

 “The other side believes in personalities, and we believe in the Constitution. We believe that for the Constitution to be changed, then we should not change it through the backdoor. Ultimately, the rule of law must guide all and every engagement,” said Dr Ruto on Saturday.

The DP also implored Kenyans living in the diaspora to help preach the gospel of the Hustler Nation, register more members, support the manifesto of the team and even donate to support its agenda ahead of next year’s election.

 “I believe that united as the hustler nation in Kenya and in the diaspora, we have things to do, like build on the legacies of the Jubilee government of building roads and improving power connectivity to homes. We want to have a bottom-up approach. We want to ensure that more Kenyans are home owners other than rent payers,” said Dr Ruto.  

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