The BBI was expected to have a smooth sailing. The combined numbers of legislators brought together by handshake was supposed to hand over a smooth win. Things do not appear so at the moment. Yesterday BBI agenda got its harshest criticism yet.

Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki took Facebook to deconstruct the document that was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga. He said that the document was 90% beneficial to politicians.

Kindiki would say that the document proposed a referendum when the country was broke. He wrote, “Is hell-bent on leading a broke Country into an expensive referendum, while almost all of the proposed reforms can be achieved through a faithful implementation of the Constitution as it is, Constitutional amendments that do not require a referendum & initiating new policy documents.”

In the recent years, the country has been borrowing at an alarming rate. Kindiki wondered why the BBI did not offer a roadmap on how to solve the crippling debt. “Does not provide any practical solutions to crippling public debt (current ceiling of Ksh 9 Trillion will be hit in the next two years according to National Treasury, yet President Kibaki’s administration left a debt of only Ksh 800B, and a ceiling of Ksh 1 Trillion),” he posted.

The Tharaka Nithi Senator wondered the wisdom of enlarging the parliament. “Enlarges the size of both the National Assembly & the Senate, and creates at least three new Commissions (on health, youth and police respectively). The wage Bill is at Ksh 800B which is 50% of the Ksh 1.6 Trillion the KRA hopes to collect. We must downsize the wage Bill to below KShs 500 B no matter the cost.”

BBI according to Kindiki doesn’t offer a plan how the country should fight corruption. He posted, “Has failed to provide bold, concrete & practical suggestions on how we can stop losing Ksh 600B every year (per EACC) to theives perched high in leadership of National & County Governments & in Civil Service, as well as their families, cronies & surrogates.”

“Conveniently fails to provide remedies out of the near bankruptcy that we are in. The Country’s economy has collapsed & the Nation technically insolvent. With an annual budget of KSh 3 Trillion currently, KSh 900B is for debt redemption, KShs 800B is for public sector wages & allowances, KShs 350B is for other forms of recurrent expenditure , while Kshs 600B is lost through corruption (per EACC)…yet KRA collection is stuck at KShs 1.6 Trillion at best,” he added.

According to Kindiki, the BBI is out to kill the senate and in the process devolution. He wrote, “Kills the Senate completely. The only innovation to strengthen this House of Devolution is to transfer Women Reps to the Senate. There is a complete failure to appreciate that Senate’s/ upper Chambers in all jurisdictions exist principally to protect the federal units/regions/
States/devolved units against the excesses of the Centre.That is why Senate works on the principle of one County, one Vote; on equality of Counties & thereby cushioning marginalized communities & ethnic minorities from the harsh excesses of majoritarian dictatorship. With the death of the Senate ( the second death , the first one having occured in1966), Devolution will be left to the devices of the whimsical manipulation of the National Government administration of the day & a National Assembly which operates on the majoritarianism principle.”

The Executive is planning to experiment on the ⅔rd gender rule at the expense of devolution. “Forces Governor candidates to have a running mate of opposite gender (which is in itself un-democratic) while curiously, it does not impose the same requirements to Presidential candidates. This shows the thinking that at the Counties is where you dump unpleasant experiments, by interfering with composition & roles of Senate and forcing Governors to respect Women while exempting the National Executive from the rule.”

The BBI seems to only favor the major five tribes. He pointed out, “Simplistically assumes that if you reward the top 5 most populous ethnic communities (going by our voting propensities), the 39 communities constituting Kenya’s ethnic minorities are inconsequential & the country will be politically inclusive, stable and prosperous.”

The senator saw that the document is based on unrealistic assumptions. “Assumes if you give a political seat to an ethnic chief, then the community’s social, economic & political grievances have been addressed.”

The whole of BBI fails to capture the injustices experienced since independence. “Proposes no viable mechanisms of healing the wounds inflicted through a century trauma, corruption, gross & systematic violation of human rights, land grabbing, class inequalities, deliberate marginalisation of certain parts of Kenya & skewed sharing of national resources, development projects, public appointments & the like.”

“Is an eclectic mix of pain-killer solutions to serious, deep-seated problems that require a complete surgery to lift millions of our people from abject poverty as well as the inclusion & bettering of the lives of subsistence farmers, cobblers, shoe shiners, cooks, house helps, micro enterprise traders, lower cadres in the disciplined forces & civil service, watchmen, fisher folk, peasants & all the other suffering lot in our midst,” he added.

His Verdict

“For the aforementioned reasons, unless I am eventually pursuaded otherwise by alternative, well argued & reasoned explanation before the vote on the BBI proposals, I OPPOSE.”