Tough balancing act as BBI ends hearings

The Building Bridges team is walking a tightrope, striking a balance between achieving short-term political gains and durable solutions to the country's problems.

The BBI team finished collecting views from Kenyans on Friday against the backdrop of growing pressure from the political class to hold a referendum to change governance structure and add executive positions.

However, the leading political parties have given the 14-member  team a wide berth, not submitting views and raising speculations about their actual law change game plan.

Analysts argue that their non-appearance snub is deliberate so they don't appear to be setting a referendum agenda for the BBI, whose formation they were party to.

The BBI team is the product of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition chief Raila Odinga's March 9, 2018, handshake that brokered a political truce.

Many people had expected their political parties, Jubilee and ODM, to lead the pack in making suggestions.

While Uhuru and Raila have separately, for instance, said the country needs a new system of governance to redress inequalities, they have not made any direct proposals to the team.

However, the two parties already have hinted at the possibility of a referendum to reconfigure the system of governance; they have not submitted their views to the Senator Yusuf Haji-led panel.

The absence of the big parties from the BBI table has triggered concerns about whether there was a referendum deal between the President and Raila when they struck a pact last year.

However, Ford Kenya, ANC, and Wiper have already submitted their proposals to the team whose extended term expires in October.

Raila has asked Kenyans to be ready for a referendum that he says would be recommended by the BBI.

"Very soon, the BBI will release its report and seek your views, leave that other Bill called Punguza Mizigo. We have issues that we have consulted Kenyans on and we shall engage them further before we put the questions for a referendum," the ODM leader said.

The Opposition leader was referring to constitutional amendments being pushed by Thirdway Alliance leader Ekuru Aukot to, among other things, slash the number of elected leaders and reduce the wage bill.

Raila's ODM party has delivered a point by point critique of Aukot's Bill, saying it fails to address the structure of government and the public debt.

The Punguza Mizigo Bill is with the county assemblies but the court has halted debate until a case challenging the initiative is determined.

BBI co-chair Haji denied that the team was out to propose a referendum as a solution to the country's problems.

“It is not within our purview to decide whether the country would go for a referendum or not,” the Garissa senator said.

“We would then recommend the articles, if any, in the Constitution that would be changed. It would be upon the government to decide how to change the Articles that Kenyans want to be changed.” 

It would be interesting to see how the BBI team navigates through public expectations and political pronouncements as its work nears completion.

Interestingly, the Jubilee Party, which had initially left its members to democratically make individual presentations to BBI, now says a referendum is inevitable. They could not make a rach a common position in the fractious party.

Secretary general Raphael Tuju has told Kenyans to brace themselves for law reforms.

“We want to promote inclusivity in national leadership and address the issue of winner-takes-all once and for all. The Constitution is not cast in stone,” he said last week.

Revealing the actual intentions of BBI, Tuju, a close confidant of President Kenyatta, said the need for a fundamental law change was one of the reasons the task force was born.

“It’s just a matter of time before the BBI report is out in October to signal which way forward for Kenyans but there are high indications pointing to a referendum,” he said.

Analysts say that despite the BBI team's denials, there are clear signals that the task force could be poised to make radical proposals that could reconfigure the country's system of governance.

There appears to be an equivocal endorsement of a referendum recommendation by the BBI team

"It is no longer about if but when a referendum will be held," political analyst Martin Andati said.

Uhuru and Raila have hinted at having an expanded Executive for inclusivity, he said.

Raila is fronting a parliamentary system with a powerful prime minister to deal with ethnic tensions but said the BBI team would make their final recommendations on the way forward.

In January, ODM's Central Management Committee, in a leaked report that was to be presented to the BBI task force, proposed re-introduction the post of Prime Minister. 

He or she would lead the government and have two deputies.

The president would only be ceremonial and serve one non-renewable seven-year term.

ODM had also proposed the introduction of 14 regional governments on top of the national and county governments.

It called for the elevation of the Senate to be an Upper House with veto powers.

The document was never tabled to the BBI team.

A review of the presentations made before the team shows that most of the recommendations revolve around altering the country's governance structure.

The BBI team has heard from, among others, politicians, religious leaders, youth groups, women's groups and constitutional experts.

For instance, the National Council of Churches of Kenya supported the push for a referendum to overhaul the structure of government.

NCCK said the Executive should be expanded to accommodate the position of the Prime Minister and two deputies, and reduce the number of the Cabinet secretaries.

It might be hard for Uhuru and Raila to implement the BBI report given that its implementation could coincide with 2022 campaigns.

Uhuru formed the handshake team on May 9, 2018. under Article 10 of the Constitution.

It was to tackle ethnic antagonism and competition, lack of national ethos, inclusivity, devolution, divisive elections, safety and security, corruption and shared prosperity.