“Will the BBI deliver Uhuru and Raila handshake deal”? The Standard asked its readers in a headline on Tuesday, October 1. The Building Bridges Initiative is a joint project of President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM party leader Raila Odinga.
The BBI task force has gone around the country to collect views about what government Kenyans want. As a good Nairobi reporter, award winner material, might write, the BBI’s “long-awaited” report will “reveal” what government Kenyans prefer.
But the BBI has not made its findings known. The task force retreated last week to write its report.
Now, anyone interested in the BBI would have grabbed a copy of the Standard to find out the task force’s recommendations. The headline “Will BBI deliver Uhuru and Raila handshake deal?” only makes sense if the paper has details of the task force’s findings. Or how could readers answer that question without knowledge of the findings?
But the story appearing on page 7 under the headline “BBI prepares report as Kenyans’ hopes swell” had nothing about the findings.
“The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) yesterday went on a retreat to prepare a report that it will present to President Uhuru Kenyatta”, the story stated.
The team was constituted after the March 9, 2018 handshake, the report went on.
Already leading politicians are divided on a proposal that the team should recommend a referendum.
Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka was quoted as saying the recommendations must be directed towards unifying the country.
National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale said the BBI team should propose a system where minority communities are not left out of government. He supported creation of a parliamentary system of government.
ACK Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit said his church would support changes that would benefit the country.
What was this story really about? Does any one of these opinions – or all of them together – tell readers whether the BBI will deliver the Uhuru-Raila handshake deal? Not at all.
Raila has told Kenyans to prepare for a referendum, the report said. Deputy President William Ruto is opposed to a referendum.
What was the news here? The only thing Standard readers probably didn’t know was that the BBI team had retreated to write its report. As for whether the BBI will deliver the Uhuru-Raila handshake deal, the story said nothing to help readers answer that question.
“Yesterday, lawyer Paul Mwangi, who co-chairs the BBI secretariat, refused to comment on what the team would discuss at the retreat”, the report said.
“He asked people to be patient as the team puts final touches on the report.”
In other words there was no story. Readers who eagerly picked up a copy of their favourite paper to find out about the “long-awaited” BBI report must have felt deflated.
