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The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) taskforce is expected to wind up its public hearings tomorrow after which it will retreat to compile the final report.

Initiative vice chair Adams Oloo said they had collected views of Kenyans from all counties, save for Tana River, where the team is scheduled to pitch tent tomorrow.

“We intend  to proceed to  our retreat next week in a bid to beat the October deadline. We want to assure Kenyans and the appointing authority we will beat the deadline, and may hand over our report even earlier,” he said.

Oloo said all political parties and stakeholders were invited to air their views on how to tackle the challenges facing the country, but the ruling Jubilee Party and Thirdway Alliance did not honour the invite.

“Jubilee Party leadership is on record indicating they would take part in our sessions. They left their members and elected leaders to give their views,” he said.

Kenyans’ wishes

The Ekuru Aukot-led Thirdway Alliance, which is pushing for a referendum through its Punguza Mizigo Bill, gave the BBI sessions a wide berth. 

Oloo was coy about whether the BBI will recommend a referendum, saying the team’s views and recommendations, reflecting Kenyans’ wishes, would be captured in the report.  

“If the issue touching on Constitution amendment outweighs the others, our recommendations will capture that,” he said.

Oloo  spoke at the Kenya National Theatre during the opening of a two-day public participation sessions.The BBI team was following the March  2018 Handshake.