User:JumaKamau/sandbox

Building Bridges' initiative is a journey to accomplish Kenya’s dreams since its independence. Kenya continues to build towards becoming a great nation that is responsive to the urgent need for fairness, inclusivity, and prosperity for all her citizens. Kenya has achieved several milestones; however, we still have deeply embedded issues driving ethnic antagonism and divisive politics. The two root causes drive the daily narratives that threaten our peace and stability and hinder Kenya from becoming a great nation.

Kenya began the journey to achieve her dreams over a century ago and we are edging closer to achieving the goal. Kenya is a country of diverse people committed to rising to greatness together, unfortunately, the ambitions set out by our foremothers and fathers have taken a negative sharp turn in the past half a century. The country has faced divisive experiences in the past with respect to the political leadership that has thrust the country into the same dangerous political dynamics that have become a recurrent theme.

The current state calls for resilience to courageously face these challenges openly and honestly. The two leaders have set out their intentions to create a united nation for all Kenyans living today and all future generations to inherit the Kenyan dream delivered by BBI.

BEFORE BBI

Just a little over a century ago, the country that would become independent Kenya was made up of different nations and peoples, organized along different linguistic and ethnic lines, and that traded and had rich relationships with each other. Unfortunately, they were colonized and brought under the yoke of a foreign power. Their subsequent agitation for freedom came through a nationalist anti-colonial struggle. They became Kenya. A country of diverse peoples committed to rising to greatness together.

We are grateful for our fathers, we stand on their shoulders. Yet we can also see that the promise of our nation has not been met as fully as it should have been; we know there are different measures our founding fathers should have taken as they forged this young nation.

Over the last fifty-five years, since independence, the people, and their leaders have sometimes taken sharply differing positions regarding the best road to travel towards this commonly agreed destination. This has led to the lack of a collective approach in the management of public affairs and has fostered feelings of exclusion, and, ultimately, animosity.

Kenya has come full circle and appears to be re-living the same divisive experiences the country underwent after 1963. In this respect, the political leadership in Kenya today is thrust into the same dangerous political dynamics that have played out over the years, and that if not altered will result in the same kinds of calamities we have experienced in the past.

THE HANDSHAKE

H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta and H.E. Raila Odinga have agreed to roll out a programme that will implement their shared objectives. The programme shall establish an office and retain a retinue of advisors to assist in this implementation. They have mandated both Ambassador Martin Kimani and Mr Paul Mwangi to oversee the establishment of this programme.

H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta and H.E. Raila Odinga are proud to be Kenyans, to stand here together as friends and compatriots in the great work of building a strong and united Kenya.