NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 10-Orange Democratic Movement party leader Raila Odinga has ruled out any significant amendments to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report following pressure from leaders loyal to Deputy President William Ruto.
Ruto and leaders around him have been pushing for ammendmens, saying their views collected by the BBI Task Force that was chaired by Senator Yusuf Haji did not factor in their interests when it collected views from Kenyans.
On Monday, Odinga met a group of leaders from the pastoralist community who are pushing for amendments in the report.
After the meeting, several media stations quoted Odinga as having promised the group that their views will be accommodated, giving an impression of a possibility for a review of the document.
But on Tuesday, Odinga issued a statement ruling out any such amendments, saying “It is basically done and there is little likelihood that new ideas will be pushed into it. However, there are groups that feel their views were not captured in the manner they were presented during the collection of views and those are the corrections we are promising to make.”
Odinga said the report can only edited where it sounds vague or general.
This latest statement is likely to fuel more anxiety from Ruto and his loyalists who have vowed to opposed the report at the referendum set for next year, unless their issues are addressed.