- Lobby said the BBI should be rejected because it seeks to destroy the 2010 Constitution before Kenyans could benefit from it.
- What we need is good governance and accountable leadership, members say.
Image: Photos: WILFRED NYANGARESI
A lobby group has launched a campaign to rally Kenyans to reject the Building Bridges Initiative.
The Linda Katiba Movement also unveiled a website on Monday, from where Kenyans opposing the Constitution amendment drive can sign up to join the lobby in its push.
The Martha Karua-led lobby said the BBI should be rejected because it seeks to “destroy the 2010 Constitution before Kenyans could benefit from it.”
"We are calling for the full implementation of the 2010 Constitution, which is being vandalised, abused, cannibalised and destroyed," Karua, who is also the Narc Kenya party leader, said at a Nairobi hotel.
Karua said Kenyans have the numbers to defeat the selfish plans by the political class.
"The dreams and aspirations of the 2010 Constitution have been put on a standstill for the last eight years. We are the majority, some 50 million Kenyans. Do not show us the five million signatures you collected,"she added.
She said Kenyans do not need a review of the law since their priorities are well captured in the 2010 Constitution.
“What we need is good governance and accountable leadership. Not a new constitution,” Karua added.
Economist David Ndii said Kenyans must reject the BBI or else they will find themselves in the state they were in before the reintroduction of multiparty democracy in 1992.
"There is a hidden agenda in the BBI. Our 2010 Constitution is being dismantled as we watch, " he said.
He said Kenyans are going through a “democratic recession” being orchestrated by President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Activist Jerotich Seii said Kenyans should not sit back and watch as leaders change the law to suit their selfish goals.
"Join us. Let us form a mighty army to defeat self-centred people, " Seii,whose father Major (Rtd) John Seii was a member of the BBI task force said, said.
The lobby said they would use the website to mobilise Kenyans to oppose BBI as well as organise meetings with activists and like-minded people to champion the same.
Daisy Amdany, a women's rights activist, cautioned women against letting politicians erode the gains they have achieved so far.
“There is nothing for women in the BBI that the 2010 Constitution had not secured for women. The only thing is that the current administration has continued to undermine the Constitution,” Amdany said.
Last year in November, the lobby said BBI was a project “to restore a system that a certain group of people prefer.”
Karua termed the process an illegality saying it is not a people-driven initiative as its proponents claim.
She said it was illegal for the State to ask the provincial administration to spearhead the collection of at least one million signatures as required by law.