Finally, the Building Bridges Initiative task force submitted its report to President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga. For the past several months, the country has witnessed heightened political activities around the anticipated outcomes of the report, largely and presumably linked to the next presidential elections slated for 2022.
Overall, the report makes far-reaching recommendations, among them creation of the position of the Prime Minister appointed by President and whose mandate is to run the government and lead its business in the House.
It seeks a departure from the current practice of appointing technocratic Cabinet ministers and reverting to picking them from among MPs, a proposal informed by the gaps witnessed at present as ministers cannot attend parliamentary sittings and answer questions in the Chamber.
Arguably, the proposal on the architecture of government is not as radical as anticipated. The President remains the Head of State and government, continuing to enjoy untrammeled powers, complete with the mandate to appoint the PM and ministers.
The position of Deputy President is retained as is, an issue that also requires discussion. Designated as the principal assistant of the President and part of the Presidency, the position is nebulous. The occupant of that office has no designated duties other than waiting for delegation from the President, which can be whimsical.
A significant proposal is raising the threshold of financial allocations for counties from at least 15 per cent of the audited accounts to 30-50 per cent. Also, wards are being designated as the basic units for rural development, the hubs through which government funds would be channelled to the people.
This is a shift from the current structure, where funding is disbursed through the constituencies. Devolving the funds to the lowest administrative and political units is pivotal to community development as locals get better opportunities to prioritise their needs.
Taming the government’s appetite for borrowing, outlawing civil servants from doing business and strengthening agencies to fight corruption make for good proposals.
For now, it is critical that citizens read the report and interrogate the proposals to determine if they go far enough in tackling the country’s perennial problems.
Unfortunately, which is what we caution against, the debate is bound to be trivialised and individualised. We have evolved a very intolerant and bellicose political culture of ethnic kingpins who mobilise on community basis and use narrow lenses to deal with national issues. Already, there are discordant voices about the report even without the facts.
It is paradoxical that the initiative that was conceived to unite the country and end years of internecine conflicts has turned out to be a poisoned chalice. It has split the political class, particularly the ruling Jubilee Party, between BBI supporters and opposers, the latter gravitating around Deputy President William Ruto.
The task force was created out of a crisis. The presidential elections of 2017 ended acrimoniously and the Opposition, led by Mr Odinga, rejected President Kenyatta’s victory.
That background should provide the impetus for sober discussion of the report. There are many proposals that make good sense and ought to be adopted and implemented. Others, however, are unrealistic or superfluous and should be revised. Some restate what has always been dealt with in previous reports but never actualised.
We take the position that the government should create forums for critical analysis and discussions on the proposals before taking decisions. Public debate is paramount. But it must be devoid of political haranguing and coercion of Kenyans.
President Kenyatta and his foe-turned-friend Odinga have a duty to guide the public in constructive conversation about the proposals going forward. Reason and compromise must prevail. The country has had several false starts right from Independence, where citizens’ hopes have been raised and brutally vanquished by oppressive political establishments.
Transition from single party to multiparty governance in the early 1990s; overthrow of Kanu dictatorship and exit of its high priest President Daniel arap Moi in 2002, subsequent change of governments as well as enactment of the Constitution in 2010 have not dramatically altered national politics and business.
Not to mention the numerous reports of commissions and task forces established in the past to provide remedies to an ailing nation.
Success of the BBI report rests not on the threats, chest-thumping or power games, but honest and temperate discussion and elucidation of the inherent challenges facing Kenya as a nation.
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