Inside DP Ruto strategy to push for changes on BBI document
Deputy President (DP) William Ruto on Wednesday pushed for the inclusion of demands by evangelical churches in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report in what appears like a new strategy to force amendments to the document.
In what is becoming his modus operandi in the push for amendments to the report, Ruto used his twitter handle to demand that the BBI taskforce listens to the evangelical churches and incorporate their views in the report before it is subjected to a referendum.
“The concerns of our spiritual leaders on BBI are merited. No doors should be shut, no walls built to shut out better ideas, no group left behind. We must continue to build only bridges towards a consensus. Women and people with disabilities must be heard. It’s the least a caring nation does. Pamoja,” Ruto tweeted later in the night.
“The National Council of Churches of Kenya, women, Senate and other stakeholders want consensus on the BBI. It is a contradiction to want to amend the Constitution while refusing to amend a mere report. It is defeatist to build walls to shut others out while purporting to build bridges,” he went on.
Ruto’s tweet, issued after 10 pm Wednesday came hours after evangelical churches led by Redeemed Gospel Church presiding Bishop Kepha Omae threatened to reject the report on grounds that it had ignored its various proposals.
Omae, who was flanked by Deliverance Church head Mark Kariuki claimed they had presented a detailed memorandum to the BBI taskforce raising pertinent isues such as legalisation on abortion and homosexuality, which had not been captured in the fi nal report.
It was not the fi rst time Ruto was turning to his social media handle to pressurise the report’s proponents led by President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga to incorporate the views of various stakeholders.
When Raila held talks with leaders drawn from the pastoralist communities and Cabinet Secretaries Ukur Yatani (National Treasury) and John Munyes (Petroleum) and yielded to their demands to have their proposals included in the report, Ruto wasted no time in sending out a tweet, thanking him (Raila) for listening to the pastoralists
