Senior Counsel Ahmednassir Abdullahi on Wednesday, October 23, found himself in trouble with Kenyans on Twitter after he questioned the absence of ODM leader Raila Odinga on a letter from the Building Bridges Initiative team.
The lawyer shared a press release from the team tasked with preparing the BBI report that procedurally excluded the former premier's name.
"The total omission of any reference to Hon Rtd PM Raila Odinga in the statement...How significant?," Ahmednassir questioned.
This move did not go down well with most of the netizens who came to the defence of Odinga with most of them questioning the lawyer's knowledge of protocol.
First to respond was fellow city lawyer Donald Kipkorir alias DBK who noted that the former prime minister did not have the mandate to order the team.
Kipkorir further noted that the president was to receive the report in his presidential capacity, but in the presence of the ODM leader as the BBI was a brainchild of the handshake.
"BBI was a presidential Initiative. To present it to the President is correct in protocol & administratively. But Baba (Raila Odinga) will be there," DBK responded.
Others felt that the senior counsel had disrespected the ODM leader by merely questioning his significance in the BBI process.
"Ahmednassir has, of course, refused to acknowledge that one: Baba's signatory is Paul Mwangi and that baba had about over half membership in the team.
"But of course, we know his leanings politically as has to get under baba’s skin. This is what we call raising trivialities, making a mountain out of a molehill akin to Cambridge Analytica propaganda," responded Joe Aseli.
The majority agreed with DBK on the fact that the president gave the team its mandate and thus they were only answerable to him.
"BBI taskforce was a presidential initiative and it is the president who gazetted it...so it is in order to return the golden twig back to the president," Pius Kinuthia concluded.
