BBI battle between pragmatists and legalists leaves Kenyans in limbo

President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga look at their signatures during the launch of the collection of signatures for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) at KICC in Nairobi on November 25, 2020. [Stafford Ondego, Standard]

What is it in the Bridging Bridges Initiative (BBI) that is refusing to die? The High Court announced BBI was a dead horse. The Court of Appeal conducted an intensive examination and concurred with the High Court that the initiative was an offshoot of an illegality. Now the Supreme Court is interrogating the document to judge if there is any life left in it.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, on the one hand, has been very keen to remind us that BBI was not as bad as we were made to believe. His deputy William Ruto, on the other hand, reminds us at every occasion that the government’s development agenda stopped once someone started reggae (BBI). Deep down the hearts of the two antagonists, BBI troubles them.