NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 5 – Kapseret Member of Parliament Oscar Sudi has told off Azimio leader Raila Odinga on his new demands for talks with President William Ruto, saying he can as well just resume his protests.
Dismissing Raila as a desperate loser who is just out to get a share of Ruto’s government, Sudi said “Heri tu mrudi maandamano nyinyi (you better just resume protests.”
Odinga called protests last week following an appeal by President William Ruto who proposed what he described as a “bipartisan” parliamentary process to resolve grievances by the Opposition.
While Odinga welcomed Ruto’s olive branch immediately after an address from State House on Wednesday last week, he changed tune on Monday and demanded a wholistic approach akin to the talks mediated in 2007/08 by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that led to a power-sharing agreement between Odinga and Kenya’s third President the late Mwai Kibaki.
“We assure our people and Kenyans that our eyes are firmly on the ball, and reiterate that we shall go back to the people as the earliest sign of lack of seriousness by the other side,” Raila said.
But president Ruto who spoke from Rwanda is categorical that there will be no handshake.
“Our position is that we want to engage our brothers and sisters on the other side on issues that are important to Kenyans, them as an opposition, us as a government,” Ruto said.
Leaders in President Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party have dismissed Odinga’s new demands, saying it is time he moved on after the August 2022 elections.
In results declared by the electoral commission, Odinga came second after president Ruto, but the Opposition chief insists his vote was stolen.
“Tinga (Raila) lost the 2022 polls, the olive branch extended by H.E Ruto was not out of fear or caving into his unrealistic demands of powersharing but about wananchi,” he added.
Odinga who also lost elections in 2017 was accommodated in former president Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime in an arrangement Ruto describes as a “mongrel government.”
In the 2007/08 post-election violence, Odinga shared power with Kibaki after talks mediated by former UN Chief kofi Annan.
Odinga has also cooperated previously with Kenya’s second president Daniel Moi in a merger of his National Development Party (NDP) and the then ruling party KANU.
