The Building Bridges Initiative was started on the 9th day of March 2018 after president Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, decided to shake hands and unite the country that was at the brink of war. What is now commonly referred to as the Handshake in Kenya.
They thereafter jointly formed a team of individuals who held public participation forums across the 47 counties in Kenya to collect views on what changes Kenyans would want.
The BBI team collected recommendations from 7,000 Kenyans and compiled them in what is now the BBI Report that was released on Wednesday, 27th November 2019 to the public for further discussion.
Depending on the response from the public after reading the BBI report, Kenyan might have a referendum to amend the 2010 constitution resulting in change of government structure.
PROPOSED CONSTITUTION AMENDMENTS
Nomination of Members of the national assembly and county assemblies
The Bill proposes that candidates to be nominated from a party list for seats in the National Assembly and county assemblies shall be allotted on the basis of the total votes received by their political party as opposed to the current practice where such allocation is based on seats won by a political party.
Clause 45of the Bill proposes to amend Article 177 (Membership of county assembly) to change the nomination of candidates from being based on seats won to being based on the votes received by a political party in an election.
Executive to be represented in the National Assembly and establishment of the office of the leader official opposition and office of the prime minister
The Bill proposed that the Executive will be represented in the National Assembly by the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers Deputy Ministers and the Attorney-General. The office of the Leader of the Official Opposition is established. The existing disqualifications for the members of the county assemblies from being qualified to be elected as members of Parliament are removed.
The Prime Minister is to be nominated by the President from among the elected Members of the National Assembly from a political party having a majority of Members in the National Assembly through a stipulated procedure.
Enhancing devolution
· Clause 12 of the Bill proposes to amend Article 96 (Role of the Senate) to enhance the oversight role of the Senate on matters relating to all county revenues and their expenditures. The existing provision only mandates the Senate with oversight role on the national revenue allocated to the county governments and does not expressly extend such mandate to counties’ own source of revenue and borrowings and their expenditures.
Increase of constituencies and members of the national assembly
Clause 13of the Bill proposes to amend Article 97 (Membership of the National Assembly)to increase the number of the members of the National Assembly elected from constituencies from the current 290 members to 360 members. This is a consequence of the proposed increase in the number of constituencies.
Further, this amendment proposes to include the Leader of the Official Opposition, the Cabinet Ministers who are not members of the National Assembly and the Attorney General as members of the National Assembly.
Further, the amendment provides for the nomination of persons with disabilities and the youth to the National Assembly. Lastly, special top up seats are created to ensure the gender principle is actualized. However, in filling of the special top up seats, it is provided that a first priority in the nomination shall be given to candidates who contested for the constituency seats and were not elected.
Scrapping off of the position of women representative and creation of position of women senators
It is proposed for the Senate to have ninety-four members, each county represented by a woman and a man elected by voters in the counties. The position of women rep has been scrapped off.
Creation of the position of the Leader of Official Opposition.
It is proposed the Leader of Official Opposition shall be the person who received the second greatest number of votes in a presidential election and whose political party or coalition of parties has at least twenty-five per cent of the members of the National Assembly.
Broadening the executive structure
The Bill seeks to amend Chapter Nine of the Constitution on the Executive to broaden the executive structure to achieve inclusivity, cohesiveness, and unity for the benefit of the people. This Chapter introduces the office of the Prime Minister and two Deputy Prime Ministers, with leadership roles in the executive and Parliament. It also provides that Cabinet Ministers may be appointed from among members of the National Assembly.
Female deputy governor
Clause 47of the Bill proposes to amend Article 180 (Election of county governor and deputy county governor) to enhance gender parity in the governance of counties by providing for the candidate of the county governor, in nominating a deputy governor, to consider a person of the opposite gender.
Equitable share and other financial laws
Clause 50 of the Bill proposes to amend Article 203 (Equitable share and other financial laws) to ensure the average amount of money allocated per person to a county with highest allocation does not exceed three times the average amount per person allocated to a county with the lowest allocation. It further increases the percentage of funds allocated to county governments from fifteen to thirty-five to strengthen devolution and ensure that county governments have adequate funds to carry out their operations
Clause 54 of the Bill proposes to insert new Article207A (Ward Development Fund) into the Constitution to establish the Ward Development Fund. The Ward Development Fund shall comprise of at least five per cent of all the county government's revenue in each financial year and ensures equitable distribution and development in the wards of money allocated or collected by the county government.
Conclusion
BBI being an initiative that seeks to cure political issues that have faced the country since independence, it is expected that three political groups will emerge. Those that support BBI, those that reject BBI and those that have no interest in it. As it stands, Raila Odinga’s party ODM seems to be fully in support of the BBI while jubilee party is divided between two groups: Deputy president William Ruto’s supporters identified as “Tanga Tanga” that started opposing BBI before it was released and president Uhuru Kenyatta’s supporters identified as “Kieleweke” that are in support of the BBI referendum.
