Law Experts and politicians have been identified as the worst group in enlightening Kenyans on the contents of the Building Bridges Initiative report.
Residents of Migori County accused the political leaders and lawyers of bringing confusion to Kenyans on what exactly the draft says on various sections of the law in respect to the nine agenda President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga wanted to tackle during their discussions that culminated in their famous handshake deal.
“We want lawyers and politicians to stop their game of twisting facts in their debates with a view to confusing the masses on the BBI report for their selfish political gains,” said Mr. Oloo Mikwa, the chairman of the Oyani Bunge La Mwananchi outfit in Uriri Constituency.
He appealed to the experts and the politicians to be always genuine in what they tell the common man about the report currently being launched at the Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi by the President Kenyatta and ODM Party leader Raila.
“I thought lawyers are crafted from the same law subject. But hearing them argue on one line of the same law you would think they come from different discipline of their expertise,” said Mr. John Ondigo, a resident of Mariwa village.
Mr. Ondigo claimed the lawyers were intentionally being mean with the truth on the BBI report with a view to politicise the whole conversation to have their way in the draft.
Consequently, the residents called on Kenyans to read the document by themselves and stop relying on what the politicians tell them on the draft.
They said some of the lawyers and the political class had already openly taken sides on the BBI conversation and will automatically want to lure the people especially the layman on their side to gain political mileage.
For this reason, the people in Migori would want a proper structure to be put in place to help conduct civic education on the report in order to help the masses make an informed choice if at all the report will be subjected to referendum.
“We want fairness to prevail in educating the masses about what the BBI proposal entails and how it will affect the life of the common man when it is passed as a law,” said former Chairman of the defunct Migori County Council, Mr. Geoffrey Odera.
He said the BBI should never be a recipe for dividing the people of Kenya but should be made a tool that would lead the country into a united Nation for life.
Those who have chosen to campaign for and against the report must be accorded fair chance and time to tell the people the pros and cons of the draft without being intimidated through state-sponsored or political mob violence, added Odera.
The residents said, while the ongoing BBI conversation was currently dominating the country’s executive desks, priority should also be given to matters education currently in the doldrums as a result of Covid-19, runaway unemployment and development in general.
“We have important roads that have been rendered impassable by recent heavy rains to mend, there are several schools that need to be repaired urgently following recent floods and issues of poverty stricken Kenyans who need to be helped to survive,” pointed out Mrs. Dorcus Awino, a retired teacher, adding that:“So let us not burn all our energy in one area of the nation’s problems but also think of other areas which need urgent fixing for prosperity.”
By George Agimba
