DP William Ruto Changes Tune, Throws Support Behind BBI Report

Deputy President William Ruto appears to have changed his stand on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report.

Taking to Twitter, Ruto expressed support for a new article introduced in the BBI report, saying it will address the needs of ordinary Kenyans. 

“New article 11A in the BBI Constitution bill introduced after Bomas will anchor ordinary people’s Hustler economics of wheelbarrow, boda×2, mama mboga, pastoralists/butchers & guaranteed minimum returns on coffee, tea, korosho, sukari, maize. Bottom up not trickle-down economics,” Ruto wrote on Friday.

Article 11A in the Constitution amendment bill talks about the economy and shared prosperity.

In a separate tweet on Saturday, Ruto said they are working on consensus to avoid a contested referendum.

“I’ve 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 win-lose we can overcome win-lose to achieve win-win.”

Ruto’s apparent change of heart comes days after President Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga launched the countrywide collection of signatures for the BBI referendum.

BBI Secretariat joint secretaries Junet Mohamed and Dennis Waweru said the exercise will take a week before the signatures are presented to IEBC for verification. Kenyans can append their signatures online on www.bbisignatures.org.