“Captured” at Conception: The Unlikely Promise of BBI and the Quest for Reforming Kenya is a September 2019 report by Ken Orengo, published by the Uwazi Consortium. The Consortium is a Kenyan association of civil society organizations, social movements and concerned citizens working on democracy, governance and human rights. Described as a “ground zero” study, the report takes an early, critical look at the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) and asks whether it can deliver what Kenyans expect from it.

The background

The BBI traces back to 9 March 2018, when President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga shook hands and pledged to end their hostilities. That pledge followed the turmoil of the 2017 election cycle, which included the Supreme Court’s annulment of the first presidential result, a boycott of the repeat poll, and Odinga’s symbolic swearing-in as the “people’s president.” The two leaders then signed a statement, “Building Bridges to a New Kenyan Nation,” naming nine issues to address, and a 14-member task force with two co-chairpersons was gazetted in May 2018. Its term was later extended to October 2019. The report acknowledges that the handshake brought real relief: an Ipsos survey cited in it found 80% of Kenyans still supported the handshake more than a year on, and businesses welcomed the end of boycotts and mass protests.

What the report argues

The author builds the case in four parts.

• An agreement between individuals. Unlike earlier Kenyan “handshakes,” such as the 2008 Kibaki-Odinga deal that ended post-election violence, this one was reached without input from either leader’s party structures and was not grounded in negotiated, witnessed guarantees. The report argues that a personal agreement is not public policy, and questions whether state resources can legally be used to follow it up, given the constitutional requirements of national values (Article 10) and public participation.
• Problems that already have remedies. The nine issues, including ethnic antagonism, exclusion, corruption, devolution, and rights and security, are said to be already addressed by the 2010 Constitution and by bodies such as the NCIC, KNHREC and EACC. They also echo the findings of earlier commissions, from Akiwumi and Ndungu to Kriegler, Waki and the TJRC. On this view, a new task force is duplicative, and the real obstacle is implementation and political will, not a lack of ideas.
• Who is on the task force. The report credits the appointers with a reasonable attempt at regional, ethnic and gender balance, noting that four of the 14 members are women. But it finds that political loyalty carried the most weight, with nine members having known political affiliations. It also notes no representation for youth, persons with disabilities, Muslims or civil society.
• How the BBI operates. The author finds no known physical office, website, postal address, phone number or email, no clearly defined roles or structure, and no competitive recruitment. Funding is also unexplained, which the report says matters both for fiscal accountability and for the risk of donor or interest-group influence over recommendations that could reshape the electoral system and the executive.

The public hearings

The report’s field evidence comes from six county hearings it followed. It found low turnout (for example, about 100 attendees in Laikipia against an expected 300) and no evidence of public notices through mass media or posters. Instead, invitations went out through County Commissioners and other National Administration officials, reaching people who had attended past administration events. One invitee received an unexplained SMS with no agenda. Some participants also complained that politicians and party activists were given more time and attention than other stakeholders.

The conclusion

The report concludes that nothing it found inspires confidence in the BBI. It argues that the process appears designed to produce predetermined outcomes, which it describes as a rubber stamp of the leaders’ “shared objectives” rather than an expression of the will of the people of Kenya.