TALKABOUT KENYA
The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) – What is it? Why has it been proposed? Why has it become controversial?
Following Kenya’s contentious 2017 election, there was a significant amount of resentment developed among competing parties, ethnicities and governmental institutions. In March 2018, in an effort to reduce these post-election tensions President Uhuru Kenyatta met with his main opponent, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Following the meeting, they issued a joint communique in which they identified nine (9) major challenges facing Kenya.
The 9 major challenges identified were:-
The Lack of National Ethos Ethnic Antagonism and Competition
Responsibilities and Rights Shared Prosperity
Divisive Elections Corruption
Safety and Security Devolution
Inclusivity
The communique they issued and ‘the handshake’ are the first step of a process that came to be known as The Building Bridges Initiative more common referred to as BBI. They then appointed several leaders to the BBI committee to speak to Kenyans in all 47 counties on these 9 cited challenges.
The committee’s report was published in November 2020 and there were dozens of recommendations made for each challenge listed. I will say that my favourite proposal is the change on dual nationals being allowed to hold any position in government, with the exception of Commander in Chief and a few other sensitive defence positions, this is a change from the current situation which heavily restricts dual nationals ability to hold a significant number of positions in the Kenyan government. I would also cite approvingly the increase of funding to county governments from the current rate of 15% to a new rate of 35% of the national budget.
The proposed recommendations that have elicited the most attention from most media outlets are the constitutional and legislative recommendations that would significantly change the executive and legislative branch of the government. The proposed changes would have created the office of the Prime Minister consequently weakening the Office of the President. It would also have led to the loser of the Presidential election being made a Member of Parliament (MP) and therefore Leader of Opposition. Cabinet Secretary’s would become ex-officio Members of Parliament (MP) and would revert back to their pre-2010 constitutional title of Cabinet Ministers. Making cabinet ministers answerable to the Legislature is a change much desired by many who felt that there needed to be far more oversight over the executive by the legislature. These were just some of the headline changes proposed by the BBI committee that would have required constitutional and legislative amendments.
These proposed constitutional and legislative changes have caused substantial rifts among the political elite and more specifically the President and Deputy President and their differing camps. Ironically, this has resulted in resentments developing between differing ethnic groups and parties, the same problem that the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) was developed to tackle. But it has succeeded in uniting President Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Odinga who have been on opposing sides of the 2002, 2007, 2013 and 2017 elections and ‘represent’ two of the four largest ethnic groups in Kenya.
Kenya’s constitution is a really difficult to amend. In order for the recommendations to be adopted, the process would require one million signatures in favour of a referendum in which Kenyans would get the opportunity to approve the dozen or so constitutional amendments proposed. However, in the middle of 2021 a five judge bench ruled that the manner in which the government and the BBI committee has proceeded is unconstitutional, preventing the government from calling the referendum the desired to call in October 2021. The decision of the high court was immediately appealed to the Court of Appeal and heard by a seven judge bench that fundamentally upheld the high court decision. This has left the Building Bridges Initiative in limbo and probably prevented implementation before the next election scheduled for August 2022.