NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 22 – President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for a meaningful discourse on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report, which he is set to receive on Tuesday next week, after the 14-member BBI taskforce announced it was ready for presentation and subsequent review.
The President, on Friday said the sole purpose of the report is to make Kenya a more united and inclusive country, after decades of a myriad of challenges, that range from electoral violence, corruption and tribalism.
He was speaking in Bungoma County, where he presided over the Kibabii University graduation ceremony.
“My only prayer, especially to the political class, let us read it. This is an opportunity to engage in meaningful and peaceful discourse. We don’t want to divide the country,” the President said.
He pointed out that, “only a fool will say that there are no issues in this country that do not require to be addressed. Let us address them as adults, as civilized human beings and let us appreciate that we might have divergent views, but our objective is to make our motherland better and improve it. There is no need for insults.”
The President urged leaders to avoid divisive politics while reviewing the report, saying it is premature for a section of leaders to declare their opposition to it, even before they get to know its content.
The report is a culmination of nearly a year-long initiative, that started May 2018 following a unity deal between the President and his then political archrival in the 2017 presidential election Raila Odinga, in what is now referred to as the handshake.
“Let us just take time, to go through it together and come out with good things that can make our country even better and united, and our institutions even more inclusive,” he appealed.
Even before the contents of the report are made public, political temperatures have risen, with various factions formed, as leaders position themselves towards playing a key role in either the opposing or supporting a constitutional referendum that may arise from recommendations of the BBI taskforce.
Others and specifically a section of elected leaders drawn from the vote-rich Mount Kenya region have made public their set of conditions, more so on the distribution of resources, which they want to reflect the numbers of people living in an area.
Once the President has received the report, Kenyans will have a chance to know its contents.
Kenyatta and Odinga have hailed BBI as the solution to challenges impeding the country.
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