Lay focus on all nine sections of BBI report

ODM leader Raila Odinga and Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi at Kinoru Stadium for the BBI rally. [Emmanuel Wanson]

It is a pity the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) has dropped to the back stage for whatever reason.The document has some useful insights and proposals that we can use to make a leap towards a better Kenya.

Just for the section on divisive elections (one of nine sections), with its proposal to introduce more seats for the high and mighty, we want to throw out eight sections that promise the poor a lot.

Our poor reading culture contributes to the way we view the document. There are nine action areas the BBI Task force was to work on: lack of national ethos, responsibilities and rights, ethnic antagonism and competition, divisive elections, inclusivity, shared prosperity, corruption, devolution, safety and security. 

Of all the nine areas, focus on divisive elections captured the mood of the nation. Whether this is due to the way politicians ran away with it as a weapon for battling opponents, or media that was unable to set the agenda of the other eight areas or a combination of both is unexplainable without in-depth study. The spirit of the document was essentially to address the foundational causes for our run-ins during election.

The revised version of the document is yet to be released. We can only pray that it is tighter than the first one since some chapters were rather vague and superfluous. For instance, proposing an Ethics Commission to be placed in the Office of the President as if ethos is a security issue is intimidating.

How soon we forget the precarious situation we were in is unbelievable. Nothing much has changed, be it at IEBC, the electoral body that is criticised for making compromises on the integrity of the voting process, tribalism in senior job allocations, growing corruption most recently in the use of the Covid-19 funds, the agony of young people finding employment opportunities courtesy of grand corruption, and formation of political alliances on the basis of low level interests as opposed to high level interests such as patriotism, service to others and national unity.

In terms of diagnosing the problem the BBI report got it right. Some of the solutions offered are actually brilliant. A few pointers from the document might help recall its importance. We have witnessed a failed bill on revenue share for a record time. Why? Listen to the BBI document:

“Kenya is running out of time. Kenyans know we have to change our trajectory, our social and economic software, and the way we are governed, if we are to avoid catastrophic failure, or, just as bad, a continuing down drift into sustained poverty, misery, instability, and conflict.

We have designed political and economic systems that are not fit for purpose, and we continue to tempt fate by building on their failures to the detriment of most of our people.”

The document further warns that “we must either change together, and stop the few who resist change for selfish and corrupt reasons, or our potential as a people will go unfulfilled.”

But, do we have nationalists who can withstand blind loyalty and curve themselves out as nationalists to whom we shall offer unsolicited standing ovations? Hardly so because as the document correctly points out, we lack trust. Again, listen to this:

“This lack of trust by citizens in the political process, in public institutions, in their elected leaders, and in the economic system to reward merit and effort over cronyism, blocks our sense of belonging to, owning and building a unified nation.

Political antagonism

The trust deficit manifests itself in our politics most of all and makes us hold onto identifies and interests that we have politically weaponised against each other. It is trust we must build if Kenya is to become a peaceful, prosperous and fair nation.”

It is evident that BBI captures the ills of this country. As a matter of fact, the chapter on inclusivity, shared prosperity, ethnic antagonism and competition, corruption (the rigged economy) and devolution articulates well issues bothering us. Yet, the bubbling political antagonism towards the 2022 General Election go on as if we are discovering new truths about our wayward politics. No wonder the documents speak of “Kenyans have no tomorrow”.

We cannot afford to sit on, or throw away work that has at least eight of nine chapters giving us direction. The fight for high seats can be expunged if that is the problem and give us the rest of the document for a referendum because ordinary Kenyans stand to benefit, albeit incrementally.

Dr Mokua is a lecturer in media and communication