Revealed! How Ruto saved bipartisan talks from brink of collapse
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Ruto reportedly saved bipartisan talks from collapse after new demands from Azimio as the two teams laid the groundwork
Ruto reportedly saved bipartisan talks from collapse after new demands from Azimio as the two teams laid the groundwork on Wednesday.
Teams allied to President William Ruto and Opposition leader Raila Odinga struck a last-minute deal yesterday to hold the inaugural meeting of the bipartisan joint committee today at the Panafric Hotel in Nairobi.
The two teams have settled on the venue as a neutral ground.
The leadership will, however, meet first to resolve disputes on the composition of the committee, especially the inclusion of Azimio-affiliated Jubilee Party’s Adan Keynan as a representative of the ruling coalition, which the Opposition has objected to.
The two teams met after Ruto reportedly called the majority leadership in Parliament and instructed them to agree to Azimio’s demand for dialogue talks outside Parliament.
While it is not clear if the President yielded to Azimio boss Raila Odinga’s demand for a non-parliamentary initiative, the talks will happen at a venue away from the August House.
Ruto’s direct intervention sealed the fate of the dialogue that was teetering on the brink of collapse as both sides stuck to their guns.
The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party had insisted that the talks be held at Serena Hotel while Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza alliance wanted the initiative chaperoned by Parliament.
“I can confirm that it was the President who called the likes of Ichung’wa and Murugara and told them to agree to hold the talks at any location if that is what would jumpstart the initiative,” a Kenya Kwanza MP close to the President.
He said the President’s decision was arrived at after it appeared that Azimio would resume their street protests next week if the talks failed to take off as initially agreed.
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“The move was a strategic climb down to demonstrate goodwill and leadership on the side of the President and sets the talks on a trajectory of progress,” the vocal MP added on condition of anonymity.
After the President instructed the parliamentary team to yield to Azimio’s pressure, Raila is then said to have asked his team to withdraw the venue from Serena so that they would agree on a neutral ground.
Earlier, the Azimio co-chair Otiende Amolo had written to members asking them to attend a meeting at Serena Hotel on Thursday morning.
National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee Chairperson George Murugara, the Kenya Kwanza team’s lead in the negotiations, had on Wednesday asked Azimio to agree to a neutral ground coordinated by Parliament.
“As co-chair of this process, I would humbly request and encourage you to call off your meeting as a show of good faith so that we can all attend one meeting that is facilitated and coordinated by Parliament,” he said.
The MP told Azimio the reason for the parliamentary coordinated process was to ensure that the talks are both formal and well structured.
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