Wednesday, April 5, 2023 – Azimio Leader Raila Odinga has made a U-turn barely two days after accepting a truce with President William Ruto and subsequently calling off his weekly demonstrations.
This is after he realized that Ruto played him in his statement on Sunday where he extended an olive branch to him.
He claimed that Ruto’s State House briefing last Sunday fell short of their expectations due to the discussions between their parties.
“Ruto made his statement. That was not the basis of the understanding between the parties that were negotiating. That statement fell short of what had been agreed and they know it. That’s why in our own statement we reiterated firmly what was going to be the basis of our engagement with Kenya Kwanza,” the opposition leader pointed out.
This comes even as he concurred with Ruto on the parliamentary approach, indicating that Ruto reached out to him, to call off the protests.
In a press briefing yesterday, Raila threatened to mobilize his people to go back to demos if Ruto will not show seriousness in meeting his demands.
Raila countered the agreement with the Kenya-Kwanza administration, noting that he sought to have a conversation at the national level that resembled the 2008 agreement under the National Accord.
He indicated that a purely based Parliamentary process could not achieve the bi-partisan agreement arrived at by the two parties.
“We want this process to be akin to that Kofi Annan led. We want it to be a people-driven process,” the ODM party leader added.
“A purely parliamentary process will not serve the intended purpose on the issues we raised. Our suggestion is to have a conversation at the national level through a process a kin to the 2008 National Accord,” he stated.
The Kenyan DAILY POST.