NAIROBI, Kenya Dec 6 – Deputy President William Ruto and Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi clashed Saturday over the raging debate sparked by the DP on the need to amend the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Bill before a national referendum is held.
While Mudavadi maintains Kenya should dance to the ‘reggae tune’ all the way to the referendum due mid 2021, Ruto has held that the process is being hurried and protested that his hustler nation is yet board the train.
“The other day you told us that there is no time like the present to pass the 2010 Constitution. Now you are telling me that the train has left the station. I am wondering why are you always in a hurry, why can’t we just accommodate each other, It is never too late to do the right thing. Why don’t we do the right thing?,” Ruto said during the burial of Matungu MP Justus Murunga, also attended by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga who is spearheading the BBI process with President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Raila, who did not wade into the BBI debate at the burial, has always insisted “the process cannot be derailed because it has timelines.”
“I am not saying we reject the draft Bill, I am saying that we can make it better and carry all Kenyans along,” Ruto added.
The Deputy President also reiterated his preference for a multiple-choice referendum held alongside the General Election, the provision to vary by 20 percent of the proposed 70 constituencies as well as the amendment of the provision for the proposed Judiciary Ombudsman to be nominated by the President and vetted by the Senate, saying the office holder should instead be named by the Judiciary.
Mudavadi said that the country should bring to an end the ongoing BBI debate and allow the country to move forward.
“The more we prolong something, the more we delay the process of recovery. BBI has been here for two years and now we are entering the third year. If we prolong this thing again, we are delaying the process of economic recovery,” he told mourners at Murunga’s burial.
The former Vice-President added; “We are confusing investors. We are delaying investors. We are making them uncertain because they do not know where this thing (BBI) is going to go. For how long are we going to delay them? Let us get rid of this uncertainty. Let us burst the boil.”
One million signatures of registered voters are required to back the draft bill but the Secretariat navigating the Bill through the constitutional safeguard measures announced that it had collected 5.2 million signatures by Friday.
