Kenya Youth Alliance wants public to understand BBI before appending signatures
By Eunice Kayo and Mourice Seretta
The Kenya Youth Alliance is calling for the public not to append their signatures for the Building Bridges Initiative Bill while under pressure.
Addressing the media from a Nairobi Hotel on Tuesday, the alliance’s leaders led by Chairman Shamala Daucus and Spokesperson Mundalo Advice cautioned the public that the signature is an endorsement to the BBI process and a call for a referendum saying that it was therefore important that the people of Kenya stand guided and only append their signatures for endorsement of the process after good understanding of the document.
“The Kenya Youth Alliance will be holding National consultative forums across the regions of the country to reach an objective consensus on the position of the Kenya Youth Alliance in regards to either supporting or denouncing the BBI based on the scrutiny of it with our members across the country guided by our members and legal experts,” they said.
The alliance also called on the BBI secretariat to provide proper nationwide sensitization to inform the populace up to the grass root level of the Mama Mboga, the boda boda operator, the artisans, farmers etc.
“We call upon the taskforce not to throw the sensitization duty to the political class who are pushing different selfish interests that aligns to their side of the political divide owing to the realities of Jubilee, ODM, Tangatanga and Kieleweke factions. This is leading to excessive misleading and misinterpretation of the document leading to support or lack of it by the people anchored on perilous grounds of manipulation,” the alliance said.
The alliance further called on the political class to shun open division of the country on tribal lines on the basis of the referendum.
They said that in as much as they agreed that the referendum was a political process, they called upon the politics surrounding the referendum to be ideological and spur disagreements of ideals and not personalities.
“We also caution that no youth of the republic of Kenya should be used by any segment of the political divide to spur tension or cause violence in the referendum push. The youth like the rest of Kenyans will take a solid stand through the Kenya Youth Alliance and proceed to seek the support of the rest of the Kenyans to champion its course, we therefore do not welcome any interference aimed at using the youth to actualize the aspirations of a few,” the alliance further said.
The alliance called upon the youth in Kenya to remain on standby and attend the National Consultative forums which will be held in every region spearheaded by the Kenya Youth Alliance Regional coordinators.
They said that will inform harmonized position of the youth on the Building Bridges Initiative.
The signature collection exercise began last week after President Uhuru Kenyatta and his handshake partner ODM leader Raila Odinga officially launched it at KICC Nairobi and is coming to an end on Thursday.
So far the exercise has seen more than 1.5 million sigantures collected, surpassing the 1 million constitutional requirement.
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