The Building Bridges Initiative team rejected funding from three foreign countries, joint Secretary to the taskforce Paul Mwangi has revealed.
BBI team was constituted by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga to help address issues that have affected the country among them ethnic antagonism.
According to Mwangi, three countries offered to support the team but their offers were flatly rejected given that the team never wanted to lose independence.
“They had separately asked to fully fund the process, but we were not comfortable with the move and we declined because we felt that it would have affected the objectivity and independence of the team,” says Paul Mwangi, a joint secretary to the team.
Mwangi says it was 100 per cent Kenyan process and not a single day did a non-member or a foreigner sit in their proceedings. Foreign governments have previously participated in Kenya’s political processes.
“There was a country which had even asked to fly in experts to help us in the document preparations, we said no,” he says.
The choice of the members and pick of the leadership - seasoned government operatives Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji and his Busia counterpart Amos Wako - did not help matters.
“We acknowledged our diverse backgrounds and admitted that for us to gel, we needed to be guided by patriotism and love for the country,” says Mwangi.
For a long time, foreign countries have often been accused of interfering with internal processes of the country, thus the reason by the team to reject funding.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga are expected to receive the recommendations of the team this week. There are claims that the team has recommended for Parliamentary system of government.