With latest reports pointing to dwindling fortunes and a possible voter apathy, ODM leader Raila Odinga has hit the ground running to drum up support for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) after Christmas break.
While his handshake partner President Uhuru Kenyatta has yet to engage in any public event in support of the initiative so far this year, Mr Odinga has been hard at work, meeting groups of supporters from Kikuyu council of elders, to youth, men and women supporters yesterday at the Ufungamano, Nairobi.
The Sunday Nation has established that Mr Odinga and his politburo believe that a loss at the referendum as proposed by the BBI would be more devastating to him than the President and has thus took the lead role in popularising the initiative as a resurgent Deputy President William Ruto threatens to shoot it down.
For the DP, as is Mr Odinga, the referendum is a test-run for the presidential elections next year and whoever has his way will ride on the momentum to the General Election. It is do or die. Mr Odinga has not publicly declared whether he will make another stab at the presidency but his body language and actions betray him.
And so for Mr Kenyatta (his men would not admit it), that Mr Odinga has a personal stake in the push to amend the laws was equally working for him since he is fired to see it sail through. He would thus not dig so deep into the trenches.
Yesterday, minority leader in the Senate James Orengo, an Odinga ally said the wrangling within the ruling party had significantly undermined the President’s ability to drive the BBI agenda implying they now needed to work overtime to guarantee its success.
“The Jubilee party’s crisis is making our work difficult. One would have expected the President to do an overhaul both in the ruling party and government to find it easy in driving his development agenda. They say a house divided against itself cannot stand. The President has some room to correct this if he wishes,” Mr Orengo said.
A ruling party split down the middle between Mr Kenyatta and DP Ruto has seen a number of members oppose BBI as the bulk of the support comes from what used to be the opposition in a reverse of roles.
“We handed the IEBC the signatures nearly a month ago and there is nothing to show for it. The exercise must be completed before the end of January. IEBC bosses surely know how Issack Hassan and his team left the commission,” he said, referring to protests by Mr Odinga and his supporters that saw then IEBC chairman Hassan resign in 2016.
But nominated MP Maina Kamanda fronted by the President to be among those leading the BBI for the Jubilee wing in Nairobi and central Kenya sought to explain Mr Kenyatta’s absence in the campaign trail.
“Initially, the President had hoped to strike a somewhat neutral note to leave room for negotiating with those opposed to the BBI so that they can join us but it appears this has not worked. Expect to see him in the trenches going forward,” he said adding, “The President will be out campaigning for the BBI at the right time.”
There are also those defending the President by arguing that while Mr Odinga was neither in parliament nor government, on his side he has a government to run, making him largely unavailable.
The development is, however, not isolated as during the BBI ‘reggae rallies’ last year, it was Mr Odinga who took the lead role in mobilising the masses across the country with the President only receiving periodic updates.
Mr Odinga has been handed teams to work with from Mount Kenya including all governors and MPs such as Kanini Kega, Maoka Maore and former Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth, who is keen to run for the presidency next year.
When he met Nairobi women league comprising members from ODM and Jubilee yesterday, Mr Odinga announced a new plan to ensure that BBI gospel gets to all hamlets in the city.
“The team will consist of five women from each faction,” he said.
The new strategy, he says, is to ensure everyone, including women in the remote areas, knows “the truth” as is in the BBI document.
According to the former prime minister, the propositions in the BBI have suffered from misinformation peddled by those out to scuttle it.
While having Mr Odinga lead the campaigns was naturally going to stoke resistance from within the DP’s camp as he is seen as his main rival, the other advantage, observers say, is his stellar political acumen and campaign experience than spans over decades.
Some in Mr Kenyatta’s camp see Mr Odinga as the only person who can tame the DP, politically.
Equally, others in Mr Odinga’s team also see the role as an advantage to his future ambitions as it accords him an opportunity to ‘engage in early campaigns unimpeded’ and create new allies in the process.
At the same time, alarmed by numerous reports pointing to a groundswell of resistance towards the BBI in his Central backyard, President Kenyatta has embarked on a push to revive the falling fortunes of his pet project largely accelerated by the concerted campaign by the ‘hustler nation’ which has captured the psyche of his kinsmen.
Last week, the President dispatched a group of Cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries and senior government officials from the region to find ways of promoting the document.
The La Mada meeting chaired by Agriculture CS Peter Munya was only one in a series as the commander-in-chief plots to not only lock his deputy Ruto out of Mt Kenya but also recapture his influence which has significantly waned in the region since he joined hands with the ODM leader Raila Odinga through the handshake (which created the BBI).
It came hot on the heels of a letter by the Senate Majority leader Irungu Kang’ata warning that the region would shot down the document at the referendum.
The President’s men have lined up a number of activities that will also see Mr Kenyatta address a number of rallies in the region before the referendum scheduled for some time in June.
A number of situational reports by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) have consistently warned of cold reception of the push to amend the laws through the BBI in central Kenya. The same agency, the Sunday Nation has gathered, recently sounded alarm over plans for a by-election in Nairobi to replace former Governor Mike Sonko.
Other than taking charge of the BBI tours, Mr Kenyatta is also recruiting new allies at the grassroots level to ward off what his handlers call propaganda from the Tangatanga side, the group of politicians allied to the DP.
And to take care of a select constituency that has never warmed up to Mr Odinga following decades of political rivalry between Central and Nyanza, (Mr Odinga’s home) it has also been agreed that the two would not tag along in the referendum campaign tours to occasion high voter turnout at the plebiscite.
But as Mr Odinga is leading BBI activities, his party members yesterday warned that they were ready to embark on their role of Opposition if their Jubilee coalition partners continue to undermine them.
Led by Mr Orengo, they blamed a section of Jubilee leaders of attempting to derail the handshake initiative between President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga.
"As ODM, we made a choice to support and work with the government. But we will only do so when they are on the right track. If they keep on provoking us, then we are ready to go to the trenches for the sake of Kenyans who are looking up to us," he said during a funeral service at Ulumbi village in Gem, Siaya County yesterday.
He called on President Kenyatta to act as the Commander-in-Chief and crack the whip on his deputy for constantly undermining his authority and criticising government policies and directives.
"The time has come for him to make a choice just like the first Vice-President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga did when he had an ideological difference with President Jomo Kenyatta," Mr Orengo stated.
He noted as unfair for Ruto supporters to blame Mr Odinga on government failures when he or any ODM member does not sit in the Cabinet.
Mr Orengo dismissed claims that the handshake is about the 2022 elections and called on Kenyans to take their time to read and understand the contents of the document and not to rely on misinformation being peddled by Dr Ruto supporters.
"If Ruto does not want to support BBI, he can concentrate on the implementation of the Big Four Agenda which aims at transforming the key sectors of the economy," he said.
