NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 18 – The planned launch of a nationwide exercise to collect signatures in support for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), a constitution review drive, on Thursday was cancelled Wednesday evening over the delayed publication of the Constitution Amendment Bill.
Joint chairpersons of the National BBI Secretariat – Dennis Waweru and Junet Mohamed – said the Bill “is scheduled for printing later tonight”.
Raila Odinga, a co-convener of the initiative, had earlier announced plans to begin collection of signatures on Thursday saying he would jointly launch the exercise with President Kenyatta.
Odinga’s proclamation on Monday followed a day after he held talks with a section of county governors from Nyanza accompanied by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi.
The postponement of the exercise came amid reports of separate meetings between President Kenyatta with religious leaders and Deputy President William Ruto.
The catholic church and Ruto are among prominent voices which had called for a further review of the BBI report unveiled in October, singling out the proposed creation of a Police Council, the involvement of dominant political parties in the appointment of poll agency commissioners and an executive-appointed Judiciary Ombudsman.
The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) issued a communique on November 12 following a retreat in Subukia cautioning against the reintroduction of an imperial presidency by giving the President sweeping powers including the mandate to appointe the Prime Minister and his two deputies.
“To give the President the power to appoint a Prime Minister and two Deputies risks consolidating more power around the president thereby creating an imperial presidency,” the Bishops said.
They also expressed reservations on a proposal which would see two major political outfits name two of the six commissioners at Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
“This proposal will turn IEBC into a political outfit with partisan interests. The question will arise on how fair the elections will be,” KCCB stated.
Ruto expressed similar reservations during the launch of the BBI report at the Bomas of Kenya on October 26.
“How fair will a league where the referee is appointed by, not all the teams, but some teams?” he posed.
Ruto also dismissed as illogical the argument that an expanded national executive will enhance inclusivity and resolve the challenge of divisive elections.
The DP pointed out that the sharing of additional executive positions by the winning party does not guarantee inclusion.
“In the current arrangement for instance, our Majority Leader in the National Assembly would be the Prime Minister, two other House leaders will be deputies; what happened to the Minority Party?”
Dr Ruto warned against the formation of a Police Council chaired by an Interior Minister would derogate the independence of the police, calling for the strengthening of the National Police Service Commission and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority.
In recent days, Dr has accused Odinga-allied leaders of seeking a divisive YES-NO to advance their selfish financial interests.
“Those driving the BBI should not tell Kenyans that they have no time for further amendments. If we cannot enrich the document, then we would end up with a bad constitution because its work was entirely unprofessional,” he said when he met Wajir County Assembly members on Monday.
“Why should we railroad people to go to the presumed NO camp when we can all engage and have a consensus?” he posed.
Dr Ruto later tweeted terming a “YES-NO” vote as unnecessary, further saying he was would not be part of a divisive constitutional review process.
