Veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho on Tuesday, November 5, made claims that President Uhuru Kenyatta's numerous foreign trips were not motivated by development as explained by the government.
In his opinion piece on Daily Nation, Gaitho stated that President Kenyatta did not look forward to receiving the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report.
"At that time, President Kenyatta was in Russia, and that was used as a convenient excuse. Now, we might have to conclude that his frequent foreign travels are designed to avoid the report," he sensationally alleged.
He claimed that while he understood that the president and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga were busy individuals, he couldn't understand why they couldn't squeeze some time to receive the report, which is of national importance.
"If BBI was as important as advertised for the building of national cohesion and guaranteeing sustainable peace, security, and nationhood, Kenyatta and Odinga would have made it a number one priority to receive the report and immediately embark on its implementation," he stated.
Gaitho claimed the two proponents of the initiative could not agree on some of the tenets that had been prescribed by the report.
"Although the president and the erstwhile opposition leader-turned-key ally have both always been publicly fulsome in support of their baby and diagnosis of Kenya’s problems, a close analysis reveals that they may not necessarily be on the same page regarding prescriptions," he explained.
Some of these contentious recommendations, he stated, were that Odinga wanted the report to include the creation of the position of the prime minister as head of government, but Kenyatta refused to be dragged into conversations involving political positions.
The long-serving media practitioner also stated that Odinga had insisted that there be a referendum to institute constitutional change, but President Kenyatta has been on record numerous times stating that his focus was on development and not politics.
Gaitho further mentioned that suspicion was triggered when Odinga's ODM Party came forth to give its recommendations to the BBI committee but Jubilee Party chose to stay away.
He clarified that while he did not think that the president had grown cold feet concerning the BBI, he was certain that he and the ODM leader were reading from different scripts.
