The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) has come under attack from the former Chief Justice, Willy Mutunga. Mr. Mutunga termed BBI a fraud as it sidelines the deputy president of the Republic of Kenya Mr. William Ruto. The BBI project was launched by ODM Party leader Mr. Raila Odinga and the Jubilee Party leader president Uhuru Kenyatta. Both men claim that BBI’s primary purpose is to unite Kenyans.
However, BBI has come under attack as it has been widely seen as a trojan horse whereby the main aim is to fool Kenyans under the disguise of unity so that the two politicians can change the constitution, create the position of a prime minister in which Uhuru Kenyatta can vie for and continue being the head of state past his mandate in 2022.
The current constitution allows heads of state to rule for a maximum of two terms after which they are no longer eligible to contest for the presidency. This constitution was promulgated in August 2010 by the then president Mwai Kibaki after the “Yes” side won the referendum to change the 1965 constitution.
Willy Mutunga is one of the critics of the BBI propaganda and the most high profile member of the Justice Leadership Club to fault the Building Bridges Initiative.
“There is no Building Bridges that does not include the Deputy President William Samoei Ruto. You cannot claim to be uniting the country while sidelining him. It is impossible. He has loyal supporters that are very many and spread out across the country”, Willy Mutunga Said.
Apart from Willy Mutunga, there are a throng of politicians, lawyers and civilian citizens that think the Building Bridges Initiative will fail since its tenets of national unity do not make sense. The questions being asked is why president Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga always isolate the number 2 in the country instead of using him as a vehicle to propagate the BBI message.
On September 16, 2020, five political and economic activists filed a law suit challenging the process of constitutional amendment, a move likely to scuttle President Uhuru Kenyatta’s push to overhaul the country’s governance structure through BBI.
David Ndii, Jerotich Seii, James Ngondi, Wanjiku Gikonyo and Ikal Angelei want to court to challenge Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga’s attempt to change the constitution via the BBI process and eventually the referendum. To ensure that their grievances were heard as soon as possible, they expressed their desire to have their case certified as urgent.
They also want the matter to be sent to Chief Justice David Maraga so he can assign a three-judge bench to hear it.
They have sued Attorney General Kihara Kariuki, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and his Senate counterpart Ken Lusaka and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
Obviously, the five activists’ aim is to ensure that the BBI, the referendum and attempts to change the constitution to create additional government seats does not sail through. The ramifications for this is that Uhuru Kenyatta will be sent into mandatory retirement within the next two years as the current constitution do not allow him to vie for the president for the third time.
This will leave Deputy President William Ruto and former prime minister Raila Odinga to battle it out at the ballot in the 2022 presidential elections.
Willy Mutunga: Career Profile
Willy Mutunga was the Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya between 2011 to 2016. He was replaced by David Maraga, the current Chief Justice who is slated to retire by the end of December 2020.
Born in 1947 in the former Kitui District, Willy Mutunga is a University of Nairobi graduate and was forced into political exile in Canada in 1983. There, he joined other political exile Kenyans including Kiraitu Murungi and Makau Mutua.
The former Chief Justice’s life has been plagued with controversy throughout his career. For example, in 2011, National Council of Churches of Kenya led by Peter Karanja opposed the appointment of Willy Mutunga as the Chife Justice of Kenya since Mr. Mutunga was in support of gay rights and wore ear-rings on his ears.
Also, Willy Mutunga received wide condemnations from Kenyans who felt uncomfortable about the former Chief Justice’s Africanization of homosexuality in Kenya and the East African region at large. Back then, Willy Mutunga was a columnist with the Daily Nation where he used “Cabral Pinto” pseudoname in order to propagate his pro-gay news articles on the newspaper.
Family-wise, Willy Mutunga has married twice with the most recent being in July of 2000. However, he filed for divorce from that marriage on May 2010. Dr. Willy Mutunga has a daugher and a son from his first marriage. He also has two sons with two different women from his relationship in 1993 and 1999 respectively.
