There are growing concerns that the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) is degenerating into a political charade.<\/p>\n
And the loudest warnings are coming from the church and the mosque.Clerics and political leaders are now warning politicians to stop polarising the country in BBI rallies. Some stopped short of calling for their suspension.Christian and Muslim clerics led by the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Eldoret Dominic Kimengich are warning that the unity process has been hijacked by politicians who are using it to polarise the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing bad in the BBI, but it becomes wrong when we see elected leaders politicising the process and using it as a vehicle to get into power. The problem is the way we are handling the process,\u201d Kimengich, who was recently installed, said.<\/p>\n
The Bishop said the BBI process is already dividing communities and warned that the process may not achieve its aim of ending election violence and uniting Kenyans if political leaders are allowed to steer the process.\u201cIt is already dividing people. Some people have asked me to talk to the President and tell him that things are not going in the right direction. Some politicians are already excluding others and it sends a bad signal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Chairman of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK) and the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) also warned that the rallies are polarising the country and urged President Uhuru Kenya to suspend them, claiming it is putting the country in an early campaign mood.Eldoret CIPK chairman Sheikh Abubakar Bini said the BBI rallies spearheaded by political leaders may trigger ethnic animosity.<\/p>\n
Immediate suspensionMr Bini called for the immediate suspension of the rallies and the taskforce led by Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji given adequate time to collect views from Kenyans.\u201cThe political temperatures in Rift Valley are rising. The region is yet to heal fully from the 2007\/08 post-election violence and we should not cause disharmony through a process that should unite Kenyans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While announcing the BBI at the Harambee House building after the handshake, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga raised Kenyans expectations when they promised their initiative would unite the country.But a year into the initiative, leaders are now worried that the exercise could be losing its original spirit.<\/p>\n
Five rallies that have been held across the country have been marred by open hostility towards some sections, punctuated with name calling, cheering and jeering and even doses of violence.Groups allied to deputy President William Ruto and Raila have traded barbs over the BBI.Raila has on a number of occasions declared that the BBI train has left the station and is dead set for a referendum in June.<\/p>\n
His critics see this as a case of putting the horse before the cart. He says those opposed to the BBI process are not keen to see the country united.Ruto and his allies initially declared support for the BBI but now appear to have taken a few steps back and look unhappy with the course of events.<\/p>\n
They have accused ODM of hijacking the process for its own political expediency.<\/p>\n
Gone mute<\/strong><\/p>\n Though the 170 MPs allied to the DP had promised to have their rallies, they have since gone quiet.While presenting his views to the BBI steering committee led by Garissa senator Yusuf Hajji, Majority Leader Aden Duale argued that the original intentions of the handshake had been diverted for \u2018cheap\u2019 political reasons.<\/p>\n But perhaps, the biggest criticism of the process yet has come from Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua.\u00a0Ms Karua termed town hall meetings by the BBI task force as a closed-door affair that encourages exclusion.\u201cThe townhall meetings that precede BBI public rallies are by invitation only and remain a closed-door affair,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n The former presidential hopeful said for Kenyans to have a meaningful engagement, copies of the report should be made available.Karua said the report is being forced on Kenyans and termed it a \u201cwholesale\u2019\u2019 affair where divergent views were not welcome.She termed recent remarks by Narok Senator Ledama Olekina as ethnic profiling of some communities and should have been condemned by Raila.<\/p>\n Divisive utterances<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe recent Narok rally took intolerance a notch higher through ethnic profiling. Seeking to set the record straight at the rally was not only unhelpful suggested that they (leaders at the meeting) were at peace or endorsed those divisive utterances,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Karua dismissed calls to have a referendum by June as unrealistic, saying Kenyans cannot be \u201cbulldozed\u201d.\u201cWe wish to remind them that there are two methods by which we can amend our Constitution – either through parliamentary process or through a popular initiative,\u201d she said.She said a million signatures are yet to be collected and verified by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission before the process is released for debate by the draft is taken for debate in the county assemblies.<\/p>\n Back in her county of Kirinyaga, all the four MPs – Kabinga Wachira (Mwea), George Kariuki (Ndia), John Wambugu (Kirinyaga Central) and Robert Gichimu (Gichugu) – skipped a pre-BBI meeting in Sagana on Thursday.The Kirinyaga BBI meeting was meant to consolidate a common stand the county would present ahead of yesterday\u2019s rally in Meru graced by Raila.<\/p>\n Sunday Standard established that differences in political interests played a key role in the attendance of the meeting.Similar sentiments were shared by Embu MCAs who complained that they were embarrassed by the organisers of the BBI consultative meeting in Chuka.Muminji MCA Newton Kariuki said the regional consultative meeting which brought together stakeholders from Embu, Tharaka Nithi and Meru turned out to be \u201ca photo session and fashion show\u201d where the legislators only stood to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are growing concerns that the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) is degenerating into a political charade. And the loudest warnings are coming from the church and the mosque.Clerics and political leaders are now warning politicians to stop polarising the country in BBI rallies. Some stopped short of calling for their suspension.Christian and Muslim clerics led […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,11],"tags":[235,265],"class_list":["post-3452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-photo","tag-bbi","tag-building-bridges-initiative"],"yoast_head":"\n