The Islamic Position on the BBI Report
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
On Wednesday, 27 November 2019 Kenyans witnessed the official launch of the BBI report by President Uhuru Kenyatta at Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi. The event was a culmination of the 9th March 2018 handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga at Harambee House. Before the handshake, Kenya was embroiled in acrimonious electoral mayhems pitting the opposition coalition National Super Alliance (NASA) led by Raila Odinga and Jubilee Party led by Uhuru Kenyatta. Despite the fact that the presidential elections that were held on 8 August 2017 were invalidated and ordered afresh by the Supreme Court of Kenya on 1st September 2017. NASA refused to participate and boycotted the repeat elections that were held on 17th October 2017 in which Jubilee Party participated and declared the winner. NASA’s main reason for boycotting the election was that the problems cited as the reasons for the presidential election invalidation were yet to be solved and they included electoral malpractices that required the overhaul of the IEBC and withdrawal of electoral amendment bills introduced by the ruling Jubilee administration.
What followed after the repeat presidential elections on Tuesday, 17th October 2017 was weekly chaos and insecurity that was further escalated by swearing of Raila Odinga as the peoples’ president on 30th January 2018, the country was almost ungovernable and tensions were high especially in the capital Nairobi while investors fearing for their lives and investments! Therefore, like what happened in the 2007/8 the protagonists met at Harambee House and shook hands and from that moment tensions disappeared, Raila loyalists were appointed to government parastatals amongst other positions! Furthermore, in May 2018, a BBI taskforce was gazetted and official tasked with soliciting opinions on the best way forward on how to address challenges facing Kenyans and present its report to President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga. In addition, peace and security returned while investors and their investments felt secured under the new political development to an extent we witnessed a rare visit by the former British Prime Minister, Theresa May on Thursday, 30th August 2018 in 30 years since her predecessor Margaret Thatcher visited Kenya. Once again the visiting former Prime Minister, congratulated Raila and Uhuru for putting the nation first and guaranteeing its security.
Currently the country is facing another round of acrimony with others wanting the BBI report to be taken to parliament for further polishing and implemented. On the other hand, we have others who want to have a referendum to have the report approved and implemented. It is at this junction that Muslims are finding themselves at crossroads either to adopt the report and take the parliamentary or referendum route irrespective of whether they have read the report or not.
After thorough scrutiny of the above series of events it is beyond doubt that the BBI report is a man-made document whose origin is the limited mind and NOT revelation. In addition, it is a document that is skewed to hoodwink and pacify the masses into slumber especially during at this moment when Kenyans are languishing in deplorable living conditions! Kenya is a colonial secular state whose creed (aqeedah) is secularism (separating religion from life and state) and its capitalist ideology emanates from its priority on freedom of ownership (economy) hence measures human actions based on interests and benefits. Furthermore, Kenya to-date is a colonial farm whose leaders (farm managers) have sold their souls to their Western colonial masters and hence their priority is to be sub-servient to them and so policies and laws that they formulate are only for purposes of entrenching themselves and their interests at the expense of the ordinary citizens!
As Muslims we are slaves of Allah (swt) and our success lies in pleasing Allah (swt) only through submitting ourselves to His (swt) commandments and prohibitions based on the measuring criterion of halal and haram. Our creed is: “لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله” “There is no god but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God” Based on our creed we must stick and adhere to the Qur’an and Sunnah only. Allah (swt) says: “يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓاْ أَطِيعُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ ٱلرَّسُولَ” “O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger” [An-Nisa: 59], “إِنِ ٱلۡحُكۡمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِۚ” “Legislation is not but for Allah” [Yusuf: 40], “وَمَنۡ أَحۡسَنُ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ حُكۡمً۬ا” “But who is better than Allah in judgement” [Al-Maidah; 50] and “فَإِن تَنَـٰزَعۡتُمۡ فِى شَىۡءٍ۬ فَرُدُّوهُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱلرَّسُولِ” “And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger” [An-Nisa: 59]. So BBI report is as a result of a political conflict due to elections that go against Islam. Kenya like any secular capitalist regime it prides itself to be a democratic state i.e. citizens make, amend and repeal any laws to govern their lives in other words sovereignty belongs to the people and people are the source of authority in other words they can choose a woman or man as their ruler/leader and can remove her or him anytime when they feel their interests or benefits are not met! This is CONTRARY to Islam where sovereignty belongs to Allah (swt) only via His Shari’ah (Qur’an and Sunnah) and the authority is for the people (Ummah) but once the Khalifah/ruler/man is chosen then he cannot be removed unless he commits/display open Kufr.
According to the above it is clear that Muslims have nothing to do with the BBI report. Since its foundation is secular capitalist ideology from which its poisonous systems emanate such as democracy, social liberalism, oppressive economic system, foreign policy based on colonialism etc. On the hand, Muslims must revisit their Islam ideologically since it has all the solutions to the problems bedeviling humanity across the world and caused by the invalid secular capitalist ideology and its systems. Their revisit must commence from the moment the Prophet (saw) became the prophet in 610 CE and his life and that of his companions (ra) was miserable and full of challenges like what we are currently facing here in Kenya and across the world. But everything changed in 622 CE when he (saw) and his companions (ra) migrated to Madinah from Makkah and he arrived there as a ruler and founder of the first Islamic State in the world, when he (saw) died in 632 CE he was succeeded by the first Khalifah (Caliph) Abu Bakr (ra) until the last (102) Khalifah Abdulmajid II in 1924 CE. Throughout the period of almost thirteen centuries under the reign of the Islamic State ruling by the Shari’ah; Muslims and non-Muslims and humanity in general witnessed tranquility, peace and prosperity never witnessed in the face of this earth.
Since the destruction of the Khilafah (Caliphate) in 3rd March 1924 CE, Muslims became orphans whose blood and property is being spilled mercilessly and plundered gluttonously respectively by the enemies of Islam and Muslims who are today led by America and her allies across the world. Muslims’ Khilafah that was once a united state under one ruler ruling by the Shari’ah was divided into 50+ statelets and dished out to foolish (ruwaibidha) rulers who have sold their souls to Western colonial masters for their betrayal in destroying the Khilafah. So the primary issue for the Muslims today to be engaged in, is to work for the resumption of the Islamic way of life through the reestablishment of the Islamic State of Khilafah on the method of Prophethood. It is only through the Khilafah that Muslims and humanity in general will realize genuine tranquility, peace and prosperity that is being promised by the evil cosmetic BBI report whose real intentions is to retain the invalid secular capitalist ideology and its stinking systems that are the root cause of humanity’s sufferings in Kenya and across the world.
Consequently, Muslims must desist from unconstructive BBI report debates and instead join their brothers and sisters in Hizb ut Tahrir to work tirelessly in calling for the Khilafah and at the same time h0ld constructive debates that aim at tackling the root cause of humanity’s suffering that include how to replace the invalid secular capitalist ideology and its corrupt systems with Islam and its noble systems emanating from the Creator (swt). Indeed, the call for Khilafah is the only call for genuine and radical change that everyone from the East to the West is clamoring for. “وَيَوۡمَٮِٕذٍ۬ يَفۡرَحُ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنُونَ” “And that day the believers will rejoice” [Ar-Rum: 4].
Ali Nassoro Ali