This archive report was first published on 5 January 2020.
Published on January 5, 2020
Hardly a week into the new year, the political landscape is awash with debate on presidential transition due in 2022. Distinct camps have emerged, and the environment is bound to get toxic.
The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), crafted to end rancour and violence, is increasingly becoming divisive. A narrative is being weaved around the supposed real objective of the BBI: a deal between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga to create positions and entrench themselves in power.
According to this scheme, Mr Odinga would be supported to become President, and Mr Kenyatta Prime Minister. Deputy President William Ruto would be banished and derailed from ascending to the presidency.
While there is no evidence of this plot, the account is alive, and political players are forming camps and seeking to rally their supporters around it. Matters have been made worse by the fact that neither President Kenyatta nor Mr Odinga has categorically repudiated the storyline.
Our concern is that nobody is giving attention to what matters. What do politicians seek to do with power? Is it acquiring power for its own sake? The debate about BBI is getting derailed, and voters risk being railroaded and made to support what they do not understand.
The transition debate is being obscured and perverted. When Kenyans determined they wanted a presidential two-term limit in the 1990s, the goal was to institutionalise good governance. Now, some political players are hankering for change of presidential term limit to allow President Kenyatta to continue in power, ridiculously because of age.
Put together, the prevailing debate is the beginning of descent to tyranny and dictatorship. Alternative voices like the faiths, private sector, professionals, and civil society are muted. The public must come out to ask questions and demand credible answers.
