Report on BBI receives huge support from Kenyans of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds. The Pastoralist Communities are the most recent ones to evaluate their opinions on the paper.
Speaking on Tuesday, pastoral leaders expressed their views on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report. These views should be assessed before a decision is taken on the report.
In the forthcoming changes,the BBI report committee needs to consider their recommendations.
The politicians, led by Mandera Governor Ali Roba and his Turkana counterpart Josphat Nanok, outlined eleven irreducible minimums for them to accept it, which they want to include in the study.
The BBI is a proposal to amend the Constitution in order to achieve the aspirations of the Kenyan people, and so it is not cast on stone, and we propose amendments to the pastoral community to be taken into account.
Ali Roba
Equity & Inclusivity
His Turkana counterpart echoed the sentiments calling for equity and inclusivity.
Let nobody ignore those issues. We are not secondhand citizens. We are citizens of this country, and equity must prevail in the constitutional process and political process
Nanok.
Former National Majority Leader Adan Duale and Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina joined the debate. Many of their requirements must be met and included in the paper, they added.
This is not a process for one person but a process for 47 million people.
This is a proposal to amend the Constitution and if you can amend a Constitution why can’t you amend a proposal to amend the constitution?
Ledama Ole Kina
Among the issues the leaders wanted to address were the guaranteed right to education for pastoralists, resource sharing and representation.
They also want establishment of a Livestock Marketing Authority with capacity of vessels for exporting live animals to competitive markets.
Report To Address Issues
And the concerns we are presenting here are so dear to us, and we believe we need to speak up because the published report does not identify the big issues we have posed.
Duale
On land issues, the leaders demanded protection of land use policies for pastoral lands for grazing and agriculture as well as protection of game reserves and wildlife corridors, among others.
In addition, they criticized the use of candidate lists in party primaries and called for the retention of the 47 women members in the National Assembly.
On the proposed additional 70 seats in the National Assembly, the leaders demanded a distribution that guarantees each of the 47 Counties has at least one slot.
300 Parliament Members Support The BBI Report
The statement by the caucus comes a day after 300 Members of Parliament endorsed the BBI constitution review report.
They resolved to popularize the adoption of the document without any further amendments.
At the end of the two-day retreat attended by President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM Chief Raila Odinga, the resolution was revealed.
The representatives who took part in the meeting noted that the report was the result of a long process.
And that included a wide-ranging public consultation exercise which was further checked by an equally comprehensive procedure.
We stand here today on behalf of the approximately 300 MPs from both the Senate and the National Assembly to declare our total and unwavering commitment to the BBI. We are ready to proceed popularizing the report across the country.We have a schedule of activities that will culminate in a referendum that will bring very meaningful and very far-reaching amendments to the Constitution.
Senate Minority Leader James Orengo
The Allocation Formula
The BBI Consultative Meeting held in Naivasha also agreed on a formula for the allocation of the seats.
Counties that are now under-represented due to a high population would gain new representatives on the basis of a population limit of 132,138 people per MP.
The resolution to continue with the campaigns to popularize the report pours cold water on Tanga Tanga demands.
They want a consensus-building talks by Vice President William Ruto,his supporters, and other like-minded Kenyans.
Hence maintaining that an uncontested referendum was feasible.
There is absolutely no reason why anybody in this country should put anybody to a divisive debate or to a contentious referendum we can all agree.That is why we are saying come let us reason together.
Ruto
DIVISIVE POLITICS
The Deputy President noted that, through divisive political tactics, the nation can not be united.
Kenya would not be subjected to avoidable referendum costs by agreeing on the discrepancies in the BBI report.
On the other hand, the ANC party highlighted 9 issues in the BBI report.
Musalia Mudavadi, the party chief, says such issues must be resolved before it is implemented.
- Judiciary independence.
- Strengthening of Senate.
- Elimination of public participation in the vetting of appointees by the National Assembly.
- Replacing the National Police Service Commission with the proposed National Police Council among others.
President Uhuru Kenyatta should open a window for further consultation and consensus.
This may take the form of a Constituent Assembly (such as the Bomas Model).