Finally, President Uhuru Kenyatta received the much anticipated BBI report against a backdrop of divisive and heated exchanges from the pro and anti-BBI groups.
While a lot has been said about the Building Bridges Initiative, its authors have always put up brave faces hoping that the nine points–headlined in very attractive catchphrases–would appease a restive population, wary of anything that adds to their burden of a government already heavy at the top.
While the President has occasionally chided those opposed to the handshake and its tendril–the BBI–ODM leader Raila Odinga has made it his pet subject warning of the looming tsunami and rallying leaders to support it even as he says he and Uhuru didn’t know its contents.
Such statements reek of dishonesty on the part of the duo and go further to fuel the discomfort many have with the whole process, let alone its outcome. It is instructive from the leaders who were approached that the rallying cry was a promise of an expanded executive to accommodate them in the next government.
The targeted leaders are those whom, on their own, would not mount any formidable fight to be elected president. It is also the reason many greenhorns and joyriders have been excited at the very mention of such proposals.
Today, everything from the delay in releasing the report to speculations stemming from its leakages shows a country put in dire straits by projects and initiatives it could have easily avoided by simply adhering to the dictates of our current Constitution as opposed to changing it for the benefit of a few individuals.
As things stand now, regardless of how the report turns out, it may be difficult to have a balanced debate as everyone is out to seek self-comfort.
Economic and political analyst