BBI report proves in politics, there are no unbridgeable divides

Finally, the long awaited BBI report was released this week. On the whole, it was a pleasant surprise.

The surprise was not in the content of the proposals; most of which were positive though not revolutionary.

The surprise was in how safe its propositions were.

Having been packaged as the final solution for Kenya’s problems, many assumed that it would fundamentally restructure our governance system in an attempt to guarantee the much elusive unity and stability.

Many people were terrified that the team would destabilise the 2010 Constitution and thus risk taking us backwards. On the contrary, the report generally accepted the 2010 Constitution as the foundational framework for creating a sustainable Republic.

It recognised that 2010 was our revolutionary moment.

We rewrote the design of the Kenyan Republic through that Constitution seeking to resolve our myriad political, governance, social and economic problems.

We lifted the profile of the citizen and made her the central player in all aspects of governance.

We redefined the relationship between government and its subjects.

We devolved power and resources substantially. We de-imperialed the presidency.

We created checks and balances for institutions. While we have hardly implemented most propositions, it is difficult to imagine us finding new, progressive and revolutionary solutions.

The focus of the team appears to have been making non-contestable proposals while leaving the foundation intact.

Consequently, it sought to strengthen devolution by adding more resources to counties and proposing additional safeguards to accountability.

It sought to find a soft landing for the best presidential election loser and strengthen the oversight structures in Parliament by enhancing the profile of the official leader of the opposition.

One can nitpick it’s proposals, and many of them will require further panel beating. However, it’s greatest contribution to Kenya’s ongoing reform journey is not so much content but at two other levels.

Firstly, it will be a memento to remind us that there are no unbridgeable divides in politics.

From 1966 to date, one cannot imagine two political families whose political base have spewed as much venom as the Kenyattas and the Odingas.

Yet in what we are told was a 19-hour conversation, that divide was bridged and a fresh political companionship created. That companionship continues to exist even as their political alignments remain generally unchanged.

This was our third major handshake after the 1997 Kanu-NDP merger and the 2008 PNU-ODM grand coalition.

These handshakes are now part of Kenya’s political DNA, a tradition we can export to nations struggling with unbridgeable political divides.

One only needs to cross the border to South Sudan where Kiir and Machar’s irreconcilability have brought that young country to its knees. 

Secondly, the report gives yet another opportunity to have a genuine conversation on what ails us.

The best part of the report is it’s lengthy diagnosis of the Kenyan problem.

The closest I have seen to that diagnosis is the 2002 CKRC report after Ghai and Ombaka Team went round the country.

While the Ghai team found that we had a major hardware problem in that our Constitution and our laws were anti-people and our institutions fundamentally dysfunctional, the Haji team accepted that our hardware issues have largely been resolved.

What remains is essentially a software issue. How do we translate a very progressive Constitution into a progressive Kenya? How can we improve the quality of leadership and followership? How do we attain the laudable value and ethical aspirations of our Constitution?

How do we best empowerment all citizens? That for me should be the focus of the discourse in the next few months.

Naturally, the contestations over power and the Jubilee fissures will consume most of the oxygen in the debate, but we must not lose this opportunity to have a sincere discourse on why we have become a whining nation; investing our energies in hand wringing and finger pointing instead of seeking and implementing solutions; with all the wealth of intellect, energy, resources, innovativeness so prevalent within our borders.