AFRICA/KENYA - Religious leaders. "Let us not quarrel over the report of the Building Bridges Initiative commission"

Saturday, 7 December 2019 politics   dialogue  

Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) - "Having taken time to review and understand the report by the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) taskforce, we have recognized that there are many recommendations that have potential to transform Kenya to a better nation", the religious leaders said in a communique released at the end of the second Religious Leaders Convocation that was held in Nairobi on December 4,5.
The 56-page report was published on November 27, the result of more than a year of study by the BBI expert committee, formed following the agreement reached in March between President Uhuru Kenyatta and the leader of the opposition Raila Odinga to overcome the differences and the controversies born in the aftermath of the disputed presidential elections of 2017/2018 (see Fides, 15/03/2018). The recommendations of the BBI report is to expand the role of the Prime Minister by placing him at the head of a hybrid cabinet composed of politicians and technocrats.
"We recognize our concurrence with the taskforce on the need for expansion of the executive, the need to dignify the opposition to deflate the winner takes all nature of politics, the tax relief for small businesses established by young Kenyans and efforts to curb unemployment, strengthening of devolution by increasing the capacity of county governments to deliver services, the fight against corruption", said His Exc. Mgr. Martin Kivuva Musonde, Archbishop of Mombasa, and President of the Dialogue Reference Group. "Therefore we invite Kenyans to read and discuss the BBI report, both individually and in groups, in order to participate effectively in the dialogue", he added. The main Christian, Muslim and Hindu denominations of Kenya are part of the Dialogue Reference Group as well as the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB).
Meanwhile tension rises in the country where yesterday, December 6, an armed group, which is supposedly from Somali Shabaab, killed at least 10 people in Kotulo, a town near the border with Somalia. The attackers blocked a bus on the road between Wajir and Mandera. After separating the Somalis from the non-Somalis, they killed about ten of the latter, several of whom were police officers and public employees. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 7/12/2019)


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