President William Ruto and ODM party leader Raila Odinga on Sunday, April 2, said they were ready to engage in dialogue to resolve their political differences.
This was after the Head of State ceded to the demands of the Azimio la Umoja Party leader Raila Odinga.
Following their agreement, Kenya’s President William Ruto on Monday, April 3, officially kicked off the process of addressing demands made by the former Prime Minister.
The President met Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwah, and his senate counterpart Aaron Cheruiyot (Nandi) to discuss the bipartisan approach to the IEBC issue raised by Raila.
“The president has held a meeting with the parliamentary leadership to develop a framework of the bipartisan approach to the issued raised by the Opposition,” said Emmanuel Talam, the Press Secretary at State House.
In a statement after the meeting, President William Ruto said he had asked the parliament to consider the matters raised by Raila as a priority.
“We have asked the Parliament leadership of both Houses to consider our proposal for a bipartisan approach to addressing the matters raised by the opposition as a priority,” President Ruto’s tweet read in part.
“We are convinced the issues shall be conclusively handled by Parliament in order to allow us to focus on our economic transformation program,” Ruto added.
“We acknowledge President Ruto’s olive branch for a dialogue on key issues raised by Azimio la Umoja. To us this is a positive development,” Raila said.
Among the irreducible minimum demands Raila is pushing include the reinstatement of the four IEBC commissioners dubbed ‘Cherera four’ who disputed William Ruto’s win.
But even as he showed commitment to dialogue, Raila warned that the demos might resume after a week if no meaningful progress is made by next week.
