Jubilee not serious with BBI, says ODM's Mbadi

ODM party now claims Jubilee’s composition of two key House committees signals lack of interest in the Building Bridges Initiative.

In what is growing into full blown fallout between the two "cooperating" sides in Parliament, the Minority side says it is not comfortable with the members being fronted by the Majority to two committees, which are key in the passage of BBI report.

The BBI task force last Tuesday announced it had completed writing the final report and was awaiting the availability of President Uhuru Kenyatta to present it.

Speaking to the Star on Monday, ODM chairman and Minority leader in the National Assembly John Mbadi said the BBI report will be frustrated with the proposed composition of the committees.

These are the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and that of Delegated Legislation.

“The two committees are very crucial for BBI process and partly that is why the changes were being made in the leadership, especially from Jubilee side. So we expect members who are going to sit in JLAC and Delegated Legislation to be people who are supporting BBI and the reform agenda,” Mbadi said on the phone.

For instance,  Mbadi said, out of JLAC’s 19 members, only three out of Jubilee’s 12 members are supportive of the BBI and the handshake, expressing fear that they may use their numbers to gang up against the proposed BBI reforms at the committee level.

“On Jubilee side, out of 12, nine are Tangatanga. So you have only three who you can rely on. We cannot make such a mistake, unless we have left the BBI agenda,” he said.

“I told the Majority leader (Amos Kimunya) that I was not comfortable that [Gladys] Shollei (Uasin Gishu MP), [George] Murugara (Tharaka), [John] Kiarie (Dagoretti South) are in JLAC, these are people who are not supportive of the process.”

“Delegated Legislation is almost the same name. We must align the two committees to our agenda,” Mbadi said.

But his Majority counterpart dismissed the ODM argument, saying the committees are not being reconstituted to pass the BBI report.

Kimunya had last week been forced to withdraw the committee list after the Minority side raised concerns with Jubilee membership.

“They said they wanted to consult further and they cannot consult on our members,” Kimunya said on the phone.

“There was confusion in terms of people thinking that the whole of this exercise was to kick out those branded Tangatanga. It was not to kick out some people like others thought. I cannot throw people out because others want them out,” he said.

The Kipipiri MP urged the Minority to consider bringing the House together as President Uhuru Kenyatta is trying to unite the country.

The Star has also established that deputy Majority Whip Maoka Maore and Minority Whip Junet Mohamed are planning a meeting to find a middle ground on the composition of the two committees.