Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has waded into the debate on BBI's popularity in Mt Kenya, saying the people should read and decide whether or not to support the initiative.
"On matters BBI, what do I say? Let me go quiet for a while, we all heard there is a committee that will be selling BBI (in Mt Kenya), we were told that committee is the Chairman of the process....let us wait and see.." she said on Wednesday in Kirinyaga.
Speaking in Kikuyu dialect, Waiguru continued, " Let them bring us the BBI booklets so that you ( the people) read.....let them bring BBI so that the County Assembly and the People of Kirinyaga read."
" We want the people to read and and understand...let BBI come mashinani...."
" I have read it and I know what it says...but...let our people read and then we know the direction we take and on what side...."
Meanwhile, Waiguru defended her track record, saying, "Kazi tumefanya, I do not know politics much, but on matters work very few people can compete (If it's about work, that we have done...). "
"But I will Start doing politics, I will start going to church every Sunday so that even me I speak some politics, even as work goes on..."
Murang’a Senator Irungu Kang’ata had written to President Uhuru Kenyatta warning him of the likelihood of the BBI being rejected in the region.
Kang'ata had cited opposition to the expanded Executive, the involvement of provincial administration and campaigns by former MPs as some of the issues working against the initiative.
The Senator said the role of chiefs and county administrators - and other forms of hard tactics - in BBI mobilisation is a challenge in the region.
“Let us emphasize on the soft power and art of persuasion. In my humble view, the provincial administration in BBI process should be invisible,” he tells Kenyatta.
Kang’ata, who took over from Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika as Senate Majority Chief Whip, said the involvement of national government officers could pass as “use of state’s hard power to force its citizens to endorse BBI.”
The Senate Majority Whip said the BBI risks suffering "spectacular defeat" if the President does not take immediate steps for a charm offensive.
He wants Uhuru to take charge of marketing BBI in Mt Kenya region, saying the current campaign is uncoordinated.