If Kenya Kwanza does not exhibit “seriousness” in the bipartisan negotiations by Wednesday, Azimio leader Raila Odinga has threatened to call his followers back onto the streets.
The opposition leader claimed that when they urged their adversaries to resume negotiations, they had given them the benefit of the doubt, but that since then, there has been zero goodwill.
According to Raila, there are obvious indications that Kenya Kwanza is stalling the negotiations by coming up with justifications for the continuous delays. The negotiations must begin in earnest by Wednesday; if they don’t, we will consider that gentleman’s agreement to be revoked, said Raila. “We have given them today and tomorrow,” he added.
On Wednesday, Raila canceled the day’s scheduled street demonstrations, stating they were giving dialogue a chance.
Raila claimed at a press conference on Monday that President William Ruto’s administration had approached them to ask them to end the protests last week so that there would be time for negotiations. He added that the request might have been prankish in order to create a welcoming atmosphere for foreign leaders who were traveling across the nation.
After Kenya Kwanza approached us and informed us that they were prepared for the negotiations, we acted in good faith to end the demonstrations, he claimed. We were aware that the underlying motive was that tourists were expected and they didn’t want protests going on in town.