For those of you who may not have been old enough or around during the lead up to elections of 2007 in Kenya, yours truly battled many on these Al Gore’s Internets in behalf of my friend former Prime Minister Raila Amolo Ondinga.
Although many of the people I battled then are dimwits I mostly spent time putting away their insults and moronic stupidity, others were worthwhile opponents I respected their views, even as they were wrong. This latter group included one David Ogega, an Atlanta, Georga based Kenyan political activist.
Omoigwa, as I call him because he once told me I have a resemblance with his uncle, we locked heads back then but remained friends to this day as it should be. We all can learn to agree to disagree amicably without being ugly or hateful about it.
This is my style and the only people I have no patience for are the haters who have nothing to disagree with because all they know are insults and ad hominem attacks—and believe me if I wish to return fire with fire, I can do so in a heartbeat and that point the pastor in me disappears—no, I am not a pastor but I adhere to the same creed of moral conduct the good Adventist I am.
As I glanced over my timeline as I regularly do, I saw a piece come across by Omoigwa titled Ingenious or Fraud? Demystifying BBI (Part 1) I took interest in reading it and I now dissect it below.
Warning: This piece is not for the timid, or those with not enough time to read all of it; it may take you days but read and learn a thing or two about it for I am sure you will—unless you are political junkie like us in which case you may confirm or disabuse yourself of some notions you hold.
To provide full context of what I am rebutting from Omoigwa David, I put his comments in italics, but my responses are in normal font.
The raging debate in Kenya over Building Bridges Initiative over the last year has ratcheted up a notch since BBI 2 was released a couple of weeks ago. BBI is now front and center even in the face of a sharp spike of the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed thousands and is projected to rapidly kill even more.
True.
We must call a spade a spade, candor is a virtue that we all can use at this point. Kenyans have characterized the current drumbeats for a BBI referendum President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the midst of COVID as the epitome of a tone-deaf insensitive government.
Half true, half false; combating spread of COVID-19 and containing it altogether does not mean everything must come to a half. Rather, what can be done should be done provided safety guidelines are followed. To the extent these guidelines are not followed, then you have a point.
A government simply run amok and out of ideas.
Perhaps not in this piece but this is an assertion you would need to flesh out with facts and analysis, which you have not provided to prove your general assertion anyone can make and they have all over, without count.
BBI and 2022 political rallies are the new COVID super spreader platforms. By ignoring any and all safety protocols the corrupt, unresponsive, tone deaf cocky politicians a.k.a. “overconfident idiots” have gas-lighted COVID19 resulting in devastating deadly consequences.
As I say above, failure to comply with safety protocols is unforgivable and there we are on the same page.
The spike in COVID cases related deaths albeit under-reported and the hopelessness that has descended on the country as the death rate increases is a tragic testament to the leadership’s selfishness and government’s abject failure to mitigate COVID. The government has mishandled and mismanaged the pandemic and appears to have given up on combating the pandemic altogether.
I have no basis to agree or object as this is not something I have followed closely as I do other issues.
And yet rather than pause and take corrective action to save lives the Jubilee government has prioritized BBI instead and as a consequence Kenyans are dying in droves – in desolate isolation in their homes, their deaths concealed.
Again, I don’t know about prioritizing but I do know BBI must be implemented like yesterday as we have 2022 approaching fast—and, yes, doing both is quite doable, meaning, effectively dealing with COVID-19 and implementing BBI.
The system is crumbling, and overwhelmed, medical professionals are helpless and desperate. For each reported COVID death there are hundreds more that go unreported and that’s the shameful tragedy that should worry all Kenyans. The Jubilee government is out of touch and out of sync with the needs of Kenyans, from stealing/mismanagement of COVID Billions to the suspension of medical insurance coverage for COVID patients to the brutality meted on Kenyans by the police exploiting/ extorting Kenyans courtesy of COVID, the country is simply on the wrong trajectory.
See my comment above re government’s response to COVID-19
WHY THE RUSH?
The rush by Odinga to steamroll BBI through “as is” on Kenyans at warp speed and even ruling out any chance for changes or edits just like he did in 2010 should trigger the ire of all Kenyans.
Your disdain and/or dislike of Baba oozes out of you here as you, not unlike many others, personify BBI to Raila when that is clearly a red herring. You remind me of American racists who were taught to hate Obama’s historic healthcare overhaul by an effective right wing media which instead of referring the law to “Affordable Care Act” or “ACA,” right wing racists began to refer and popularized reference to the law as “Obamacare” because they knew racists will hate the law simply because it has the name “Obama” attached to it.
Ironically, as the law became more and more popular, and as more and more people began to realize the critical necessity of the law and how it was making a difference for tens of millions of people without whom many would die, the reference to “Obamacare” morphed from being derogatory and undesirable to something more endearing and now everyone refers to the historic law as Obamacare—and what a legacy it remains for the first black president of the United States.
Efforts to personify BBI to Raila and secondarily to President Uhuru Kenyatta is for the same reason and will yield the same outcome: those who personify BBI to Raila want people to hate BBI because they hate or dislike Raila. However, as more and more people learn and begin to understand the crucial necessity of having BBI without which the country would be in its cyclic periods of destruction of property, violence and deaths each election circle, BBI will become more popular as Obamacare did in America and in time even associating with Raila will be a blurry thing of the past.
What matters and will remain are the benefits of BBI, which are many and I have addressed them elsewhere on my blog or columns, including here.
It is clear that majority of the views presented to the committee were ignored and are not reflected in the document and yet the Principals have announced signature collection launch.
If any views expressed were not included in the final report, it means in the wisdom of the experts who were selected to spearhead the process those views were either not germane, or they were already addressed in the various recommendations and proposals made in the report.
We are tired of these charades.
Not sure who “we” are but I am sure there are others who would beg to differ.
Perhaps we should start with Kenyatta’s strongly worded aversions toward changing the constitution during the 2017 presidential campaigns Kenyatta doggedly assailed his opponent Raila Odinga for the latter’s penchant obsession with constitutional changes. Kenyatta fervently vowed to Kenyans that he will not allow politics to hijack the constitution but here we are barely three years into his second term and BBI politics is front and center has not only hijacked the constitution but also Kenyatta’s own BIG 4 Agenda with, ironically, Raila Odinga at the driver’s seat! Oh how times change!
Yes, good leaders change with time and changed circumstances but, in this case, both Uhuru and Raila seized on a moment to fix what we know must be fixed and that is ending this cyclic periods of destruction of property, violence and deaths following each presidential election we all know the outcome has always been cooked save for 2002. That is a commendable effort and we should all be proud of Uhuru and Raila for what they did with the handshake that continues to shape our history.
Folks, we need thoughtfulness in our national discourse and to let sanity prevail for a change.
True.
The fire that needs urgent dousing is COVID19, not BBI but Kenyans have been compelled to turn their focus on BBI even as they bury their loved ones and try to stay alive.
I disagree; they both can be pursued at the same time, and effectively so.
We cannot ignore BBI because if we blink the powers that be will exploit the gullible masses and overrun us with BBI, already we the people have been needlessly relegated to cheerleaders and spectators as BBI is fast-tracked to the referendum like forest wild-fire.
Not sure you have stated what you intended as that would be a contradiction to what you state above so I leave this one there.
As for the document itself Kenyans are weighing whether it is a thud or thump? Kenyans are divided and the reviews are not exactly stellar to put it mildly but that’s later.
Like all countries, the vast majority of the citizenry have no clue what politicians are doing or intend to do; they just follow what their leaders tell them. So, when you say Kenyans are divided, who is really divided are the politicians and the division is always the same: those who want to eat now and those who feel like they’re being pushed away from eating now.
The difference is someone like Raila who none of that is at the core of what drives him; the man has been relatively squeaky clean when it comes to eating and perhaps the best hope to ever ramp down corruption in Kenya.
Both reports were released with a lot of fanfare but they raise more questions than answers, more doubt than assurances and severely undermine the two principals’ promises that its “cure-all” to Kenya’s malaises. But is it?
The short answer to your question is, yes, BBI cures the targeted maladies but I wouldn’t say it is a “cure-all” as more is needed to cure all the maladies bedeviling the country but implantation of BBI is many giant steps toward that goal.
FLAWED DIAGNOSIS, FLAWED REMEDY
Make no mistake, the current constitution is hopelessly flawed and needs to be amended, there is no credible argument against changes provided they are the right changes and let’s be clear, the cure cannot be worse than the disease.
True, the cure cannot be worse than the disease, but it is also true the disease cannot be left to cure itself. Something must be done to cure the disease and we can only know whether the cure is effective after treatment is done, or if the patient is dead.
Passing BBI will no doubt cure the cyclic periods of property destruction, violence, and deaths. Not implementing BBI ensures the same so the cure here is NOT worse than the disease.
BBI in its current form does not fix any problems but exacerbates them, it sidesteps and skirts around the real problems Kenyans so desperately need cured.
False. BBI does the opposite, namely, offers proposals to fix many problems chief among them addressing the mother of all problems and that is a flawed electoral process and system that allows for rigging and disputed elections each election circle leading to destruction of property, violence and deaths.
Additionally, Kenyans are opposed to the manner in which the two principals are going about it i.e. they have conflated the need for changes with their own personal interests and hijacked the process to serve their narrow parochial agenda of self-preservation while ignoring the interests of Kenyans at large.
Not true; again, who are these “Kenyans?” I am a Kenyan and am not opposed to how Uhuru and Raila are going about to make BBI a reality, ditto millions of other Kenyans who no doubt feel the same way. Are there other millions of Kenyans opposed for whatever reason, main one being Deputy President William Ruto and his supporters fear success of BBI is doom of his presidential ambition?
Of course!
I and others would rather be on the side of Uhuru and Raila because their BBI formula is what provides a much needed solution to our myriad of problems emanating from how we elect our national leaders, especially in the executive while doing nothing would make those problems worse.
Both BBI reports missed the mark by a long shot; for their verbosity and hype, they fell far short of expectations, many Kenyans have termed the reports underwhelming, blather, drivel, malarkey, ill-timed, shallow, disappointing, a misdiagnosis and deflection of the country’s real ailments, all of which make it hard to fix the maladies if you fail to properly diagnose them as the BBI does.
That is quite a mouthful, but it does not change the fact BBI has good stuff good for the country and the prove shall be in the pudding.
Just like you can’t treat cancer with flu medication, you can’t remedy stealing of elections by creating new positions in government;
Yes, you can if creation of those positions lessens or eliminates the rigging that always results in destruction of property, violence, and deaths.
[You] can’t end corruption by expanding the size and scope of government;
Yes, you can if expanding the size and scope of government lessens or eliminates the rigging that always results in destruction of property, violence, and deaths. Having said that, creation of the new positions will minimally affect government expenditure and expanding the size and scope of government is illusionary; appears that way but, in fact, not the case.
[You] can’t guarantee citizenship by introducing additional burdens on the people;
I am lost on that one; citizenship is already guaranteed in the Constitution and what burdens are you talking about when BBI is offloading the burdens of electoral malfeasance that always leads to destruction of property, violence and deaths.
[You] can’t end marginalization be excluding key constituents from meaningful participation in their governance;
This one is work in progress and I believe the end-product will adequately address the issue.
[You] can’t advance democracy when you disenfranchise masses.
This is just not true; BBI advances democracy for sure, but nothing in it disenfranchises anyone, let alone “masses.”
DEMAGOGUERY & TOKENISM
The principals are hard at work demagoguing BBI with inducements to Kenyans that are just absurd, BBI is laden with ostentatious enticements and tokens, including the following: a) carrot being dangled to counties to raise in in revenue allocation to the irredeemably corrupt county governments from the current minimum 15% of the national budget to 35%; b) reconstitute the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission (IEBC) by having parties run the institution, in other words strip it of its independence; c) give graduates a 4 year grace period before their Higher Education Loan Board (HELB) student loan repayments become due; d) an amendment to a parliament passed, Micro and Small Enterprises Act, 2012 to give youth-owned enterprises a seven-year tax break, and to establish business incubation canters across the country; e) punishes folks for not reporting corruption, F) a contentious additional 70 Members of Parliament (MPs) in 70 new constituencies to be created within existing constituencies, etc. etc. etc.
Nearly all of these incentives (not “demagoguery”) I agree with, some I object such as increasing representation in the National Assembly. The carrot and stick approach is a proven method of attaining results in politics it will be political malpractice if it was not utilized here.
A quick review of these key BBI pretexts clearly demonstrate that they are trivial excuses, and the enticements can be easily handled administratively or legislatively i.e. NONE of them require constitutional change to effect, not by a long shot.
I disagree that these incentives to marshal BBI support are “trivial excuses” and even though many of the same could be obtained without changing the constitution, their being offered as part of the package is to make it possible for the changes that require constitutional amendment to pass in the impending referendum.
Nothing wrong with that; Politics 101.
For instance the 15% revenue sharing constitutional mandate is the minimum NOT the ceiling (allowable maximum); the constitution clearly spells that out in Article 203 § 2 where it reads in pertinent part, “For every financial year, the equitable share of the revenue raised nationally that is allocated to county governments shall be not less than fifteen per cent of all revenue collected by the national government.”
Agreed.
This deflates BBI’s argument for a constitutional change to raise the allocation because the current constitution does NOT prohibit the government from allocating a higher percentage to Counties and local governments.
Agreed but note what I say above.
PANACEA OR SHAM
It is my argument that BBI as currently written is a poorly connived fallacy by the two gentlemen to delude Kenyans into approving their selfish agenda and it MUST be defeated.
Again, you and others making this assertion simply allow your disdain or dislike for the two individuals or either to cloud your ability to see the merits of BBI, which you have not yet articulated why on merits, BBI is all of these sweeping characterizations you say they are without offering any compelling argument beyond what you have and I have dispelled above, and will continue to do so below.
In advancing BBI Kenyatta and Odinga claim that the divisions in the country i.e. lack of Peace and Unity is due to electoral violence the country suffers every general election cycle at the presidential level and lack of inclusion of election losers in government.
True and no debate on that as one cannot argue with facts.
In other words electoral outcome spoils are not distributed equitably between the winner and losers and that’s to blame for all of our problems.
False. Electoral outcomes are always rigged, except for 2002, and the rigging always leads to destruction of property, violence and deaths. That is what BBI is designed to end, not distributing “spoils” of an election between winners and losers.
Those are two different things and the sooner you and others make the distinction, the better you will be positioned to start to understand the benefit of having BBI implemented.
To remedy this, according to the two, BBI abolishes the so-called “winner take all” in presidential elections by expanding the executive to include a Prime Minister, two deputies and a slew of other posts to accommodate election losers and these “Losers’/participation Trophies” will supposedly usher in a new era of peace that magically translate into national tranquility & prosperity!
Again, false. First of all you need to erase “winners and losers” from your head when thinking or talking about BBI because there is no such winning or losing in the context of what we are talking about, and what BBI intends to cure; rather, there has always been stealing and stealing of elections, except 2002, which Uhuru to his credit came to the conclusion enough is enough and shook hands with Raila to deliver a solution, which they are in the form of BBI.
Second, there are no “Losers/Participation Trophies” because BBI proposes a quasi- parliamentary system where there is still accountability to the people, the winners control the executive and national assembly, the party that loses the presidential run or “loser” as you derisively refer to them will be Leader of Official Opposition in parliament to counter the PM, which is a good, substantive thing and not just a “trophy” for those who vie but don’t win the presidency.
These claims are preposterously unfounded because they are a figment of their rich imaginations i.e. flagrant fibs.
They are not.
The Principals have NOT established any correlation whatsoever between electoral violence and the so-called “winner take all.”
This is something I would expect someone who has never been in Kenya or knows nothing about the country’s politics to say. That you are saying it as one who has been there and know keenly about what we have gone through all these decades on precisely the same correlation you claim is absent, leads me to believe you are just saying that so let me leave it there.
Kenyans have NEVER fought over lost elections, the PEVs Kenyans are subjected to every election cycle are due to stolen elections and incitement to violence by politicians.
Do you see the irony and contradiction between your two propositions above?
My point in rebuttal above is made just by that irony and contradiction.
BBI’s narrative is gibberish, this attempt to spin the real cause of the real problems facing the country are blatantly and deliberately deceptive, outright foolery that exploits the ignorance and gullibility of the masses.
False. None of that is true.
BBI squarely addresses the core issues the Task Force and now the Steering Committee members were mandated to address, and they have. Openly, transparently, and competently. There is nothing deceptive or foolery about that. None.
Kenyans understand democracy and the meaning of election outcomes, a winner and loser in an election is the hallmark of democracy world over.
True, but in an open, transparent, and fair election, not one where the results are rigged.
BBI is a FRAUD guys, a sham.
Nope. Saying it is does not make it so.
CHICANERY
The revelation by a key member of BBI’s steering committee that the members were duped into signing the report only to later disavow its contents as ALTERED should give everyone cause to pause. It is the epitome of the toxic, metastasized, malignantly cancerous politics that has metastasized and permeated the Kenyan political landscape. In this instance, Retired Major General John Seii publicly disowned the report’s contents, specifically the addition of 70 new Members of Parliament slots that the team neither discussed nor approved, https://nation.africa/kenya/news/politics/major-fallout-in-bbi-team-as-seii-disowns-report–2732382?view=htmlamp.
Two things here: Major Sii has been all over the map on this; mara the task force was rushed, mara it was not, mara it was altered, mara it was okay. Never trust or take as truth the word of anyone who changes their story no matter their motivation.
Second, Seii is one of 14 members making these allegations, which points to what he said not worth giving any attention to, let alone giving it any weight.
Simply put, you can’t cure the country’s ills or advance equity in representation by sneaking in heavily skewed constituencies through chicanery. You just can’t.
Whether sneaked in or not, I do agree with you additional constituencies is a bad idea.
It is one thing for Odinga and Kenyatta to advance their agenda and control what the rest of us can even consider but quite another to deceive so blatantly and so audaciously push the masses to approve it expeditiously.
I disagree and you have presented no evidence that “Odinga and Kenyatta” have advanced their “agenda and control” without input from the rest of us. That is stunning assertion that ignores the fact BBI has been in the public domain for discussion and input since May 2018 and we are now turning the corner to the finish line.
Given that fact, there is nothing wrong to “blatantly and so audaciously push the masses to approve it expeditiously.”
Raila Odinga and his key supporters, perhaps to cover up the chicanery, have ruled out any changes or revisions to the BBI report let alone challenging its credibility and want it rushed through the referendum just as he did in 2010.
As any good leader would do, Raila, at the behest of his brother, is just making sure what the Steering Committee recommended is put into effect. Doing so expeditiously is exactly what any such good leader would do, not cover up “chicanery,” but to make sure no time is wasted to do the inevitable.
As many of you might recall, back in 2010 Mr. Odinga ruled out any changes to the then badly flawed document before being subjected to the referendum, “don’t change even a comma or full stop,” he insisted. To Kenyans I say, don’t be fooled again, consider this old adage, “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” i.e. don’t allow Kenyatta and Odinga to fool you into doing their bidding again.
Everyone who was involved in passage and promulgation of the 2010 knows everyone went into passage knowing it was a flawed document, but many believed it will be fixed in due time.
The fixing is now.
LESSONS FROM THE PAST
“Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it”, George Santayana. We are at the cusp of reliving this very phenomenon in this rushed BBI. It is the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Fellow Kenyans, “Fools rush in where angels dare not tread” is an old adage we failed to heed in 2010, it simply means you should always look before you leap and we failed. This time around Kenyans it means read and understand what you are being asked to vote for before you actually vote for it and if you do not understand it, don’t vote for it.
BBI has been discussed for more than 1 year and 8 months and everyone who had anything to say about it has said it or has had opportunity to do so. You cannot possibly now argue that let’s not “rush” to implementing it because that does not make any sense in light of this fact, namely, there is nothing to slow or wait for other than passing a referendum to implement BBI.
When in doubt, don’t do it. In 2010 Kenyans approved the Odinga sponsored constitution that he adamantly resisted and expressly prohibited any improvements being made to it before being adopted in the referendum, “don’t change even a comma or full stop”, he insisted. Indeed Odinga took credit for and basked in the glory of its passage.
Again, Raila was being the pragmatist he always is, and led many to follow his lead in at least passing the much we already had in the 2010 revision designed to fix the myriad of problems and issues the new draft did and we are enjoying those fruits.
It is better to pass something you can fix later on than not passing anything and continuing to suffer the consequences of what you are trying to fix, and can be avoided or fixed by passing what you can have passed now.
That is wise to me and many others who see things from that prism, and I would have to say that is the majority of us, given what is happening on the ground.
Most Kenyans who voted for it never read or understood the document, it was never made available to them to read nor explained to them, in fact many Kenyans said they did not need to read it because Odinga had “read it for them”, and here we are again, Kenyans are being herded to the referendum to approve yet another flawed document that they have neither read nor understand.
It is a pipedream to think more than a few Kenyans will ever read constitutional amendments, let alone the Constitution.
We have leaders to do that for them and that is done plenty.
No copies have been availed to them read. In the 2010 document, Odinga touted it as the best constitution world over. But what have we gained from it? Trillions of shillings more in debt, devolved corruption and worse standards of living for Kenyans relative to the Kibaki years, police abuse and brutality that Kenyans were promised will end has in fact gotten worse and many ills the constitution was supposed to fix but failed. The question Kenyans ask themselves, “are we better or worse off now as a country compared to ten years ago?” The answer is a resounding NO!
The 2010 Constitution clearly left gaps and holes to be filled and BBI is filling the most gaping hole so let us go on with it and pass the referendum to implement it.
Btw, is there a reason you refer to Raila as “Odinga” which I know no one who does? Mr. Odinga, sure, Raila Odinga, of course, but just Odinga, first time I have come across that one and thus my asking the question. Okay, let me be blunt: do you not like the man that much you can’t bring yourself to calling him Raila as everyone else does? Okay, I know not to ask if you don’t like him that much to call him Baba LOL!
KENYATTA’S LEGACY AT RISK
Whereas the real instigator and agitator with more at stake from its outcome is Raila Amolo Odinga, President Kenyatta who for all intents and purposes is going along to get along, equally bears the responsibility and will be judged accordingly.
Raila is an expert in mobilizing people and his brother Uhuru knows that and thus the reason he is taking the lead in having BBI prepped and implemented. The fate of BBI is in the hands of these two men, along with the rest of the leadership and people they mobilize to bring it home so, of course, Uhuru stands to take credit or responsibility if it fails but the latter is not likely. In fact, there is no option for failure to implement BBI.
To President Kenyatta I say, pause, count your blessings and cut your losses. BBI in its current form is a liability and will drag your brand, it is not worth abandoning your agenda or legacy for. DO NOT stake your legacy on the BBI drivel and DO NOT gamble with the country’s future with BBI, not in its current form.
All that is not true. In fact, the opposite is true.
But if you must, get it right and allow us to help you improve it first so we can avoid the same pitfalls that we are now grappling with. Truth be told, if Raila Odinga were President today there would NOT be BBI talks. Similarly, if Deputy President William Ruto were not a serious contender for the presidency in 2022, BBI would NOT be an issue, always remember that.
What is your point? Of course, if Raila was not rigged out in 2017, as he was in at least 2007, there would not be a need for BBI!
If Raila were sworn in, meaning, not rigged out, Ruto contending would have no more or less interest than Raila’s was in all the years he vied previously; it would be irrelevant to talk about BBI in that context because fair, open and transparent elections would be the case or implied were Raila not rigged out in that scenario.
So it is disingenuous to drag the country into the abyss to satisfy Raila’s ambitions.
I have waded through your piece wondering when I am going to find a gem and here it is! I have alluded to this above but this, in a nutshell, is your main beef with BBI: your false belief that BBI is intended to “satisfy Raila’s ambitions.” If I have heard that false assertion once, I have heard it a thousand times but, like trying to tell a Trumpian that Trump lost the 2020 elections, trying to convince anyone who believes this false narrative about BBI being something to benefit Raila is an impossibility.
So, I will not even try other than to say the proof shall be in the pudding, meaning, the truth shall be self-evident when BBI is implemented and we see the sea of change the implementation brings in the Kenyan political landscape—for the good of the country!
His obsession for constitutional referendums is driven by his unyielding pursuit of the presidency; it is his way of asserting himself, of course at everyone else’ expense.
False.
It is a wedge issue that he deploys to position himself and catapult himself to front-runner status in his bid for the presidency.
False.
It is his modus operandi over the years, it his default political settings he always falls back to.
False.
So let’s not fool ourselves that BBI has anything at all to do with the welfare of Kenyans, it does NOT.
Let us all rest assured BBI has everything to do with improving the welfare of all Kenyans and unleashing yet untapped potential and opportunity for peace, social progress, and economic development.
However, to the extent Odinga has put this in front of us, it would actually be in his best interest to own up to the error of his ways and seek genuine mends to the constitution and not disguise the process with these absurd rabbit holes to achieve his political goal.
Until you disassociate the disdain or dislike of Raila the person from BBI and see the document from the wider angle of its intended comprehensive purpose, you will always be wrong or off in any conclusion you reach about anything to do with BBI.
My suggestion is try to see what BBI does for the country, not Raila and you and others will have it easy seeing what we see but everyone will see once BBI is implemented and that shall come to pass sooner than later.
MERIT
Finally, the real question before Kenyans is whether the BBI proposals are a) the necessary improvements needed,
The answer is yes.
b) enough
Yes.
and c) if they are not enough, what is missing and how can it be improved.
I have answered in the affirmative as to the question whether the BBI proposals are enough; however, if there is anything missing, it is too late now. The train already left the station let those be things to be addressed another day.
Put another way, if there is anything that has not been addressed in the final BBI propels, it is not important enough—and certainly not worth pausing the moving train even for a few seconds or days.
So far it is very clear that BBI missed the mark by a long shot.
Not true unless your mark is something other than what BBI was established to address.
It must NOT be allowed to stand.
Here, I must remind you what is in place to pass BBI at a referendum is way too much for those opposed to even try and stop.
Therefore, as it stands now, this BBI has been adjudicated meritless, frivolous and a FRAUD!
False.
In the next installment I share what I believe are the real changes Kenyans want and will embrace, stay tuned.
That would be good read for those looking forward to future laws to fix what BBI will not fix.
Current Affairs in Kenya 