West Pokot residents have been urged to endorse the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) without getting confused by misleading utterances about the 2022 succession politics.
Speaking at Makutano Town Centre in Kapenguria during launch of improvement and maintenance of urban roads programme Wednesday, area Governor Prof. John Lonyangapuo declared as illegal any early campaigns for 2022 in West Pokot County, terming it a waste of residents’ precious time that could be used for development.
He said those introducing 2022 politics to hoodwink wananchi to reject BBI were selfish and enemies of unity for the Kenyan people.
“Some people started panicking when they heard that I was leading the BBI brigade in the region. Some falsely branded me as belonging to the Tangatanga or the Orange group. I cannot be aligned to such small tiny groups,” stated Lonyangapuo.
He also castigated fellow governors attempting to subdivide Kenyans along ethnic lines, while advising them to instead emulate what the head of state was doing to unite all Kenyans.
Prof. Lonyangapuo reiterated that BBI was a noble process aimed at amending some elements in the 2010 constitution which needed to be reviewed.
However, the governor acknowledged the many milestones realized courtesy of the 2010 Constitution saying any review as presented in the BBI should enable the country make even bigger strides.
“You have seen the many projects that have been initiated in counties with the minimum 15 percent allocation only. What if the 35 percent to counties as presented in the proposed amendments is channeled to counties?” he posed.
Lonyangapuo said through the BBI, his county was going to have an additional constituency which means more allocation for the people through the National Government Constituency Development Fund.
“We expected two or even three new constituencies but they gave us one which is laudable. I therefore must support BBI to be passed so that the one seat doesn’t go away,” he explained.
The governor stated that his administration was able to initiate numerous projects among them bursaries to needy students, noting that with BBI enhanced allocations more beneficiaries will enjoy even higher amounts.
By Richard Muhambe
