Fellow Kenyans, let’s renew BBI spirit

 

My fellow Kenyans,

On this auspicious occasion of the 58th Madaraka Day, we’re indeed honoured to be hosted in this beautiful lakeside town.

We celebrate this day at a most befitting time and place, being at a crucial moment in our history when we must decide whether we march together as one united, stable, peaceful nation, or if we must splinter into puny, quarrelsome constituent parts.

Kisumu holds a special place in Kenyan history. The arrival of the Kenya-Uganda Railway here in 1901 not only marked establishment of the town then known as Port Florence, but also the completion of the east-west link across Kenya from the shores of the Indian Ocean in Mombasa to the shores of Lake Victoria.

The town has since been integral to Kenya’s economic, political and social development. Some of that history has been painful. For many, reference to a presidential visit evokes bitter memories.

On October 25, 1969, then President Jomo Kenyatta visited Kisumu to open the New Nyanza General Hospital, popularly known as ‘Russia’. He encountered a hostile crowd, and got into an exchange of words with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, leader of the opposition Kenya Peoples Union. As tensions rose, security forces fired into the crowd, killing a large number of people.

Shoulder-to-shoulder

Over the next couple of days, Mr Odinga and his key allies were arrested and jailed without trial. KPU was banned, and Kenya regressed from a multi-party democracy to a one-party state.

The events of that infamous day and the aftermath marked a final break between two old comrades who had marched shoulder-to-shoulder to free Kenya from colonial bondage.

At the first Madaraka Day on June 1, 1963 when Mzee took up the reins as Prime Minister, Jaramogi was by his side as a loyal deputy. Regrettably, a combination of factors saw the two fathers of the freedom struggle part ways, Jaramogi resigning as VP in 1966 to go into opposition.

The events around the Kisumu massacre were the culmination of increasingly bitter fallout not just between two individuals, but ultimately between two communities and competing ideologies.

Kenyan politics since then was defined by those divisions even long after Mzee and Jaramogi left the scene.

My dear people of Kisumu, I’m the son of Jomo Kenyatta. Raila Odinga is the son of Oginga Odinga. We have been on opposite sides of a political divide that for obvious reasons has been interpreted as continuation of a generational feud.

That is why when my brother Raila and I shook hands three years ago on March 9, 2018, we declared that the feuds and divisions that turn Kenyan against Kenyan ‘end with us’.

However, it was not just about the two of us, nor about our families, ethnic communities or political formations.

It was about Building Bridges to National Unity. That handshake was no different from the union between Deputy President William Ruto and myself that gave birth to the Jubilee Party, whose symbol as we all know is a clasped hands.

Jubilee, from the beginning, pledged to resolve once and for all the destructive ethnic-political clashes that made the Rift Valley a veritable powder keg with every election cycle.

Constitutional amendments

Much has been achieved in that regard, but much more still remains to be done. However, my fellow Kenyans, the journey to national healing and reconciliation cannot be complete if parts of the country still feel dispossessed.

That is why we are here today to affirm the spirit of the handshake.

What we must point out is that the Building Bridges Initiative is not about exclusion, but inclusion. It is not like a love affair where one party must go into a jealous sulk when a third partner enters the scene.

We are all aware that the constitutional amendments sought under the Building Bridges Initiative suffered a setback in the High Court, but that is not the end of the journey.

Building blocks

We will continue to look for creative ways to ensure that the dream does not die, so that by the General Election in August next year, we will have achieved some, if not all, of the reforms critical to a resolution of historical injustices and the building blocks of a stable, united, prosperous future.

My fellow Kenyans, gathered here in Kisumu today, we can resolve to renew the Building Bridges spirit, address the concerns of the doubters, retrace our steps and correct where we have gone wrong, and invite all aboard so that we march together as one towards attainment of  noble goals.    BY DAILY NATION