President Uhuru Kenyatta during his Jamhuri Day speech on Sunday alluded that the controversial Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) will still materialise.

The president said liberation was achieved because it was a team effort and therefore building the nation is not a one-man affair.

He said in the building of the house called Kenya there is no place for single handedness in the endeavour.

Uhuru added that nation-building is a dynamic process that includes disagreements from time to time however, the president emphasised that people must remain respectful even during disagreements.

“We are building a house called Kenya and there is no place for one-man-ism in this project. It is the collective work of every able-bodied Kenyan and yes, we will disagree at times but in our disagreements we must always remain respectful. In face respectful disagreements are what lead to reconciliation more so because when we disagree, it is a sign we are making progress,” the president said.

Read More

  1. Court dismisses petition by Woodley residents against Nairobi housing project
  2. 'Adani is a credible partner': Raila Odinga defends Indian investor amid controversy
  3. Tuju pains as court clears way for auction of Karen property over Sh4.5 billion debt

The Head of State said nation building is a both continuous and dynamic process that features errors that must be amended at the end of it all.

“The building of a nation is a living process. They cannot be static and must be dynamic. Errors are made sometimes and renovations must correct them after the house is completed,” Uhuru said.

Uhuru stated that the BBI was initiated to bring the country together especially after the two contested elections that cost the country trillions of shillings.

He said they shook hands with the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga after they realized there was a crack in the wall of the country that divided the nation and was caused by the two elections.

 “When the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and I shook hands on March 8, 2018, it was because we saw a crack on the wall of our nation; we had run two elections that had cost the country in excess of Ksh. 1 trillion. These made us see that we were starring at a nation divided right in the middle,” he said.

The president said Kenya knew the respectful disagreement was a mark of progress and even though it was an uphill task, the recognition and realisation that Kenyans need one another made us come together and reinforce our resolve.

He emphasised on the need of Kenyans coming together to mend the crack on the wall of the nation.

Uhuru said he believed that the disagreements that occasioned the crack on the wall of our nation necessitated the first amendment of the constitution.

The president said even though the process encountered an obstacle; the BBI is a dream waiting to be realised.

“Therefore again I will continue to say that the need to come together and mend the crack on the wall of our nation necessitated the first amendment to our Constitution. And although it encountered some legal obstacles, I can only say that BBI is just a dream deferred,” Uhuru said.

Uhuru said the BBI will happen one day as Kenya cannot survive ethnic majoritarianism, exclusion or uneven presentation therefore the flaws must be fixed.

“One day, someday, it will happen, because the country cannot survive ethnic majoritarianism and exclusion just as it cannot survive unfair and skewed representation. This is a design defect that we must fix,” he added.

The BBI process hit a snag after the High Court ruled in May that it was irregular, illegal and unconstitutional.

It suffered a major setback when the Court of appeal threw out an appeal against the High Court ruling and upheld the ruling by the High Court.