Tanga Tanga faction of Jubilee and politicians allied to the Deputy President William Ruto now claim the Building Bridges Initiative report is being secretly doctored after President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga ;failed' to agree on key issues.
These allegations have been raised as anxiety continues to mount over the delayed handing over the BBI report, nearly a month after the taskforce completed its work.
Soy MP Caleb Kositany, a close ally of the DP Ruto claimed on tuesday that the report is being "cooked"to trade-off political interests of the proponents. He added that Tanga Tanga is in support of the original document that was launched at the Bomas of Kenya last year.
The document proposed the creation of an executive a Prime Minister position, appointed by the president from the majority party in Parliament.
“We have no problem with BBI One report, the owners of the BBI must have disagreed on some issues and that is why they are buying time and hiding behind the Covid-19 pandemic to doctor it.” Kositany said.
But National Assembly Minority leader John Mbadi refuted claims the report is being doctored. He said the delay is because of of Raila's indisposition.
“The President would want to receive the report together with Odinga who is still having some days off. I am sure they will release the report soon,” Mbadi said. President Uhuru Kenyatta (C), William Ruto (L) and Raila Odinga during BBI launch at Bomas last year.[p/courtesy] Raila underwent minor surgery to fix his hip in Dubai and is still recuperating in his Nairobi home. The ODM Chairman also added that the taskforce had met the June 30 deadline but there was no set time to hand over the document to President Kenyatta and Odinga "The deadline of the task force's work was gazetted as June 30, no time was set within which the report should be handed over to the principals. The handing over of the report did not have any timeline,” Mbadi said.
The Steering Committee on the Implementation of the Building Bridges to a United Kenya Task Force Report, completed its work on June 30.
On Tuesday, BBI taskforce joint secretary Martin Kimani declined to talk to the media on the issue.
But another Ruto ally Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa said that a report that is submitted outside the gazetted timeline is “null and void".
“Ideally if they table the report today, it would be unconstitutional and you can't change the Constitution using an unconstitutional document.” Barasa said.