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The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Steering Committee has concluded its work and now awaits to present the report to President Uhuru Kenyatta amid confusion as its mandate elapsed yesterday. 

Although some of the 14-member committee had told the press they are seeking more time because the report is “far from ready” the secretariat sent in a statement to newsrooms yesterday afternoon saying it is ready to submit the report.

The committee is now prepared to present its comprehensive advice to the government in line with the indicated times and venues, subject to ongoing unexpected regulations on the prevention of Covid-19 infections, the secretariat said. 

“Members are profoundly conscious of the importance of this moment as Kenya and many countries around the world look to undertake reforms that unite citizens, stabilise politics and combat corruption,”  

The statement was signed by joint secretaries Martin Kimani and Paul Mwangi.

The People Daily has also learnt that the committee headed by Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji resisted attempts by the technical team to ‘mutilate’ the report launched at the Bomas of Kenya last November.

Technical team

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition chief Raila Odinga appointed a technical team comprising of 30 members to help the steering committee (earlier referred as taskforce) to fine tune the report and advise on implementation.

Maj (Rtd) John Seii said although the panel lost a huge chunk of time to Coronavirus pandemic, only minimal work was left.

“It is just about proofreading, changing commas and full stops because we have agreed entirely about the contents of the report,” he said.

 “We lost about three months. In fact we met for the first time last week so we still have a lot of work to do,” he said.

He noted that the committee was only operating with skeleton staff since the pandemic was report in March.

“It really slowed our work but we expect to complete our job soon,” he said, adding: “You, the one we presented at Bomas was just a skeleton so we are doing now is adding meat and the technical experts are helping in clearing the grey areas.”

Referendum

They are the ones pointing out the sections that need to be subjected to a national referendum and those that can be changed in parliament. “It is a good report. It doesn’t target anybody and it’s good for our country,” he added.

Asked whether there are any significant changes from the report they presented last year, he said: “There is no deviation from the initial report at all. We sometimes read things in the media and we just laugh because it’s just propaganda,” said Seii.

“There is nothing like an Executive Prime Minister. The President will remain Head of State and Commander-in-Chief. 

If The advantage we have is that we went to every corner of this country and listed to ordinary people so we know what Kenyans want,” he explained.