NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 25 – National Assembly Majority leader, Aden Duale has defended his decision to skip recent popularisation rallies of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) which, he said, have been hijacked by politicians.
Duale said he can only attend BBI meetings or rallies called by the initiative’s steering committee led by Senator Yusuf Haji, and not politicians.
Duale is among leaders who stayed away from the BBI meeting in Narok on Saturday, when former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, a new political ally to President Uhuru Kenyatta, received a memorandum detailing needs of the Maasai community.
“This is the only team gazetted in law to take the BBI recommendations, how do you ask me to take my views to a political rally? “In 2022,I might have a different candidate. How do I go to a rally and share a podium with a candidate who is an opponent to my ideal candidate, I will be sending the wrong impression to my constituents,” Duale said Tuesday, when he presented recommendations of the Pastoralists Parliamentary Group (PPG) to the BBI team.
Duale, who is largely seen to lean towards Deputy President William Ruto, questioned the necessity of the ‘well organised’ BBI rallies countrywide which, he said, do not have any approved funding in the current financial year. Ruto and leaders loyal to him have publicly expressed fears that Odinga is using the BBI to entrench his 2022 presidential ambitions after his handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“If you are not very careful, the President’s concept of uniting the country in my opinion, is doing the opposite, there is more division than unity, If we do not stop what is happening in BBI rallies across the country, by mid-March, this country will be divided down the middle. ” he told the Haji-led team.
President Kenyatta and Odinga have denied the claims, and insist BBI is aimed at changing the country’s governance structure for the benefit of Kenyans, and that it has nothing to do with 2022 succession politics.
Leaders from the pastoralist groups are proposing a pure parliamentary system of governance which will see all political contest done at the constituency level.
“The political party, or coalition of parties, with the majority members in the Parliament should form the government. Kenyans do not fight over Parliamentary elections and any other elections except presidential poll, which becomes ethnic ” he said.
In their proposal, PPG rejected the concept of regional government advocating that the current state of devolution remains as is.
“Further devolution can only be downwards, not upwards. there should be no regional government tier. We also recommend no change to the tenure of governors. They should serve for a maximum of 10 years ,” the group said.
The MPs further called for the full implementation of recommendations of Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission ( TJRC), Kriegler and Ndung’u land commission for the interest of unity, cohesion, and reconciliation.
The Parliamentary group proposed the disbandment of Teachers Service Commission (TSC) as an independent institution saying that it should be established as a state department under the Ministry of Education.
Turkana West MP, Daniel Nanok said that the commission’s act of transferring non-local teachers in North-Eastern area has crippled learning in the area.
“Denying pupils and students in the north-eastern region their right to education will not only damage the life chances of these young people, and will consequently impact heavily on the negative development of an already impoverished region,” part of the 9-page document read.
Nanok further called for the establishment of a National Council for Nomadic Education (NEMAC) and a task force that will handle the education crisis in the northern part of Kenya.
Nominated Member of Parliament, David Ole Sankok on his part, proposed that the positions of the prime minister be reserved for persons with disabilities. Deputy Prime Minister be reserved for the youth and the pastoralist communities respectively.
