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Give all chance to chart Kenya’s future through BBI

Friday, January 31st, 2020 00:00 | By
Some BBI Steering Committee members from left Yusuf Haji (chair), Adams Oloo and Paul Mwangi (joint secretary). Photo/PD/FILE

Sandra Ochola       

The second phase of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) process has started in earnest.

The ongoing meetings across the country promise a riveting national experience as varied interest groups clamour for space and visibility. 

New pacts are being formed while existing ones are strengthened or discarded depending on the visions at hand. Coming months will be critical to success or failure of the process.

In particular, its gains and challenges will be pegged first on the personalities and institutions running its agenda and secondly, on the persuasions for or against the contents of the BBI report. 

The process has already attracted champions from diverse sectors. The political sector in particular, is more visible within the BBI space despite repeated calls from their respective leadership to depoliticise the process. 

Most observers currently view the ongoing consultative forums as mini rallies and power struggles among politicians keen on furthering their political lifelines.

Often, little is known of the outcome of these meetings save for the pomposity with which press conferences are executed post the gathering. 

The second category of champions is the Steering Committee on the Implementation of the Building Bridges to a United Kenya Taskforce Report.

While the membership of the team was largely retained from the original BBI taskforce, the committee is now saddled with the responsibility of validating the report through consultations with citizens from all sectors.

It has since taken up the role of the intellectual authority on the contents of the report and is viewed to drive the technocratic aspects of the process.

Consequently, the committee is likely to be the arbiter in this process despite the legal and social challenges it is currently facing. 

The third category of champions is the electorate for whom the process exists. This group’s needs are as diverse as their desired outcomes from the BBI initiative.

Within it are youth, women, children, persons living with disability and other vulnerable and marginalised sub-groups.

It will likely take hard stances for or against the final document from the committee.

However, the basis for their decision will largely be based on whom they talk to, whom they watch on television or who knocks on their doors with the BBI message. 

Other key champions to look out for within the BBI process will be the media, civil society, private sector and the religious community.

The civil society is yet to take its space within the process beyond the disparaging report that it released on the initial document last year.

There are those who view their continued silence as a wait-and-see affair amid all the political jostling.

Others imagine it is lack of financial resources that is keeping them from prematurely entering the BBI amphitheatre.  

The same goes for the religious sector whose leadership is yet to pronounce itself in the wake of ongoing debates.

The private sector, which has an equally huge stake in this peace and prosperity project will also be expected to throw its weight behind or reject this process. 

With all of these slots filled, the next question is: who will carry the day and what impact are they likely to have on the outcome of the process?  As it is, the BBI document is receiving support from majority groups, especially the politicos. 

The advantage of this is that the ongoing political mobilisation is drawing the necessary attention to the BBI process and thus providing platforms for groups such as the steering committee and the civil society to sober up the discussions.

Media reporting on the debates must also be balanced to give the right image of all those involved in the process.

Indeed, it is only this mix of measured political and technical expertise that will see a successful implementation of the BBI project. 

It would be a great disservice to the country is the outcome of the BBI process is entirely political and devoid of the other constitutional and policy issues that could improve the welfare of the country. 

Consequently, the electorate, who stands to benefit the most from these outcomes, must demand much more from any individual, group or institution that comes bearing the BBI message. —The writer is an Advocate of the High Court

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