Deputy President William Ruto will in the coming days announce his stand on the proposed constitutional changes.
The Star can authoritatively report that Ruto has vowed not to give his political opponents a chance to push through a political contest in the referendum.
This is the clearest indication yet on his plan for the BBI process whose main proponents are President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
A non-contested referendum would not be good for those who would want to measure the depth of Ruto’s support ahead of the 2022 presidential poll where he is seen as a frontrunner.
Of key for Ruto is to “socialise the hustler nation” that there are things in the Bill that can be positive and progressive in the event his side takes a position to vote in favour during the referendum.
The Star has established that has set up several consultative meetings and met a number of his insiders and strategists on Friday evening where he explained his plan and what needed to be done.
Ruto is said to have said that since he has committed himself in public that the conversation must include ordinary Kenyans, it was important that he also explains to the “hustlers what is in it for them.”
He expressed his concerns that there were people who wanted to push him into a certain camp while they are in the other so as to have a contest before the 2022 elections.
“Genuinely, I do not want a contested referendum and I will bend over backwards to ensure that this does not happen. There are people who are desperate for a contest not because of the contents of the Bill but as a way of assembling a team on the other side,” Ruto is quoted to have told his team.
According to the DP, his political opponents want to use the referendum to play catch up due to his various meetings across the country.
“The main problem with this BBI process is that it is shrouded in secrecy and you can see that the document that they went to sign at KICC, nobody had it and people were reading after the fact,” Ruto is quoted to have said.
A tweet by his director of communications Emmanuel Tallam also appeared to confirm what the Star had established.
“The reaction to @WilliamsRuto latest tweet tells of the desperate scheme to create a contested referendum. Trust me there will be no contest. The contest will happen in 2022,” Talam tweeted on Friday night.
A tweet by the DP on Friday has been interpreted to mean that Ruto has changed his mind and would now support the referendum.
Ruto praised a proposed new Article in the Constitution titled ‘Economic and Shared Prosperity’.
His tweet however did not mention that the Article was in the initial draft but was expanded to require Parliament to enact the enabling legislation.
Ruto is said to have raised the issue with the President on the said Article when the initial draft was published arguing that it did not have an implementation clause.
“The way it had been crafted, it was going to be something sterile and I knew initially, it had just been put there to provide a fake excuse that small and medium enterprises are somewhere,” the DP is quoted having told his team.
On Saturday, Ruto tweeted: “I have a constitutional duty to assist my boss, the President. We’ve made improvements to BBI post bomas. Now working on consensus for Kenyans to have real choices to decide/vote while avoiding yes/no, all/nothing division. We avoided lose-lose, we can overcome win-lose to achieve win-win.”
