Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report pdf was released on Wednesday, 21st October 2020 by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga. A summary of the constitutional changes recommendation will be updated on this page once the report is out.
UPDATE: In Summary, the Court of Appeal has today (20th August 2021) ruled that BBI is unconstitutional and therefore bringing the BBI referendum drive to an end. The main argument of the judges in the ruling is that the President cannot initiate a referendum and IEBC does not have quorum. However, BBI drivers have an opportunity to appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court. Raila Odinga has said that he is not going to appeal.
The first BBI Report was publicly released on Wednesday, 27th November 2019 at the Bomas of Kenya by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The Second report was released on 21st October 2021 in Kisii County. The latest report is available below this page for download. It is 204 pages long.
What is BBI?
BBI in Kenya means Building Bridges Initiative. It was started on March 9th, 2018 after president Uhuru Kenyatta and his closest competitor in the 2017 presidential election, Raila Odinga, decided to shake hands and unite the country that was on the brink of war. What is now commonly referred to as the Handshake in Kenya.
They thereafter jointly formed a team of individuals who held public participation forums across the 47 counties in Kenya to collect views on what changes Kenyans would want to see from the provided 9 agendas (listed below).
The bbi team collected recommendations from 7,000 Kenyans and compiled them in what is now the BBI Report which was released on Wednesday, 27th November 2019 to the public for further discussion.
Depending on the response from the public after reading the BBI report, Kenyan might have a referendum to amend the 2010 constitution resulting in a change of government structure.
Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) 9-point agenda
BBI Team collected views from the public based on the following 9-point agendas:
- How to end Ethnic Division
- Inclusivity
- How to solve Polarizing elections
- Safety and Security
- How to deal with corruption
- How to deal with Lack of National ethos
- Responsibility and Rights
- Shared prosperity
- Enhancing Devolution
BBI Report pdf and summary
The BBI report has been released by president Uhuru Kenyatta. You can view its full content by downloading it from BBI Report pdf (this is the final version of BBI bill that was forwarded by IEBC to county assemblies for debate and approval).
Summary
Below is a summary of the first BBI report. More information will be updated:
- Allocation to counties to be increased to at least 35%
- Primer Minister to be appointed by the president from the majority party in parliament
- The cabinet shall comprise of deputy president, prime minister and cabinet ministers chaired by the president
- Presidential term limit to remain to two terms as it was in the 2010 constitution
- The opposition leader shall become ex officio member of parliament (shall sit in parliament)
- The official opposition party shall have a shadow cabinet
- Half the cabinet shall appointed from members of parliament and the other half comprise of technocrats
- Minimize taxation for new and small businesses by providing them a tax holiday (exemption) of at least 7 years as a support to youth entrepreneurship and job creation
BBI politics
BBI being an initiative that seeks to cure political issues that have faced the country since independence, it is expected that three political groups will emerge. Those that support BBI, those that reject BBI, and those that have no interest in it.
As it stands, Raila Odinga’s party ODM seems to be fully in support of the BBI while jubilee party is divided between two groups: Deputy president William Ruto’s supporters identified as “Tanga Tanga” that started opposing BBI before it was released and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s supporters identified as “Kieleweke” that are in support of the BBI referendum.
BBI Contacts
For any media inquiries or contributions, you can contact BBI team through:
- Email: BBI@citizensupport.go.ke
- Twitter: @TheRealBBI
- Official Website: https://www.bbi.go.ke
We will update all the latest BBI news on this page.
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