Nov 23, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — President Uhuru Kenyatta and the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga are set to launch the collection of signatures to endorse the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) on Wednesday.
Initially, the signature collection drive was to be held on Monday but that idea was abandoned in what insiders called the need to build more consensus on the document.
In a statement shared with the newsroom on Monday evening, the secretariat called on Kenyans, who want to see the end of corruption, ethnic antagonism, marginalization of sections of society, the empowerment of youth and women and the disabled to board the BBI train.
“We are now ready and the signature collection exercise will be launched on Wednesday,” said Dennis Waweru and Junet Mohamed–the Joint Secretaries of the National BBI Secretariat.
“I want to assure Kenyans that the BBI train is still on and we will go on with the journey starting this Wednesday. We need 1 million signatures but we are looking forward to collecting 4 million,” Waweru said, dismissing talk that the process had slowed down over opposition from Ruto and religious leaders.
The statement said the process will take one week across the country, with assurance that COVID-19 Health protocols will be followed.
On Monday, Ruto trashed the BBI recommendations as a “bad document” and warned against refusing to open it for amendments.
He expressed regrets that the costly two-year product had turned out to be “highly controversial and with so many glaring gaps”.
“Those driving the BBI should not tell Kenyans that they have no time for further amendments. If we cannot enrich the document, then we would end up with a bad Constitution because its work was entirely unprofessional,” the Deputy President said.
Others who have declared that they will not board the BBI train include the Catholic Church, the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, a wide section of civil society players and women’s groups even threatening to shoot down the initiative.
The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops says the BBI report will give birth to an imperial presidency and a police state.
