It is an abuse to the intelligence of Kenyans that the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Committee wrote a letter to the President, and clearly stated that they spoke and collected views from 7,000 citizens only in their work.
This was revealed by Uasin Gishu Women Representative Gladys Shollei during a meeting of ‘Inua Mama, Jenga Taifa’ Group at the Narok Stadium.
County MP Shollei, who is a lawyer, said it was laughable that in a country of 48 million people, according to the Census Results 2019, only the views of 7,000 were used to draft such ‘an important document’.
“You cannot collect views from 7,000 Kenyans in a country of 48million and claim to have met the threshold of opinions to formulate a document that will affect all of them.”
“Surely, surely, can 7,000 people speak for this country? This is totally unacceptable! The public participation numbers fail the threshold,” she said.
MP Shollei has continuously poked holes into the work done by the BBI Committee saying there is no provision for such an arrangement to change the Constitution in Kenya. She has previously questioned even how the BBI committee was formed.
“There are only two ways of changing the constitution of Kenya. Either through popular initiative or parliamentary initiative. BBI is not mentioned anywhere,” she said.
Such important committees in Kenya have rigorous exercises surrounding the appointment of members, choice of chairperson and even development of a working timetable for the exercise; but this was not the case with BBI.
MP Shollei has not relented in saying that the BBI Report is an exercise in futility that has no strong pillars to hold it up.
She referred to the Ghai Commission who went to every constituency and collected views from all locations, and the record of their work is accessible to this day. She added that after the Ghai Commission, the Committee of Experts (COE) who brought to Kenyans the Constitution comprised members who were chosen by the people.
The workings of the BBI have from the onset seemed like a preserve of a decimal population in the country.
“The Kenya Consitution is not a document that can be changed without following due process. We must not set such a precedent in this country for the sake of us and generations,” said MP Shollei.
