BBI signature launch: Raila’s full speech
We are opening a new chapter of the book we started writing in March 2018. The chapters we have covered so far have been quite interesting and engaging.
But it is about to get even more interesting with the chapter we open today of collecting signatures; and then the next three; going to county assemblies, then to Parliament and then referendum.
It is a great time to be in Kenya and to participate in the making of history.In these chapters, we are working on our hopes, not fears, in search of the unity and prosperity we all desire.
By appending our signatures today, after going through the Bill, we are stamping a seal of approval of the process, the necessity it all and final the document.
I appeal to patriotic Kenyans to come out in record numbers and append their approval in record time so that we move to the next chapter.
I have worked with our people on processes of change like this one for a long time and I know for a fact that Kenyans are not slow learners when it comes to seizing the moment for change.
I am confident Kenyans will close this chapter in record time.At all times remember that we are doing it in the middle of a pandemic.
Throughout this period and beyond, let's pay attention to the COVID-19 protocols. Wear masks, keep social distance, wash or sanitize our hands.Our coordinators across the country must understand that other than collecting signatures, they have a duty to protect the lives of our patriotic citizens who show up to append their signatures.
And our coordinators must ensure our citizens know what they are signing for. They must be given a chance to read and understand the Bill.Fellow Kenyans; there is a land we can see ahead; the Promised Land.
We have trekked through the difficult days of hatred and division. We have gone through the wilderness of anger and marginalization. We can see the Promised Land ahead.
But the Promised Land will never come to us. We have to go to it. That was, and that remains the condition for getting to the Promised Land. We have to keep going. We have got keep going, keep moving forward, never fearing what lies around the corner.
Martin Luther King Junior told us.....“Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience ask the question, is it right?
"And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.” We are doing the right thing. We have no other.
The author is the ODM leader Raila Odinga
