Anti-government protests: Azimio acting in bad faith, Ruto allies say
Azimio Executive Council Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya (second left) with other coalition leaders (from right) Eugene Wamalwa, Jeremiah Kioni and George Wajackoyah on March 22, 2023. Mr Oparanya insists that the anti-government protests will resume on May 2.
President William Ruto’s allies yesterday accused the opposition of acting in bad faith by calling for the resumption of weekly protests despite the government’s commitment to the bipartisan talks to end the political crisis.
The bipartisan team co-chaired by MPs Otiende Amollo (Rarieda) and George Murugara (Tharaka) is set to hold its second crucial meeting to agree on the framework for the talks today, even as the tussle between Kenya Kwanza and Azimio heats up.
This comes even as the Raila Odinga-led Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party yesterday reiterated that their anti-government protests will resume on May 2 due to Kenya Kwanza’s “non-commitment to the dialogue process”, demonstrations which will be confined to Nairobi County alone.
The move to domicile the protests in the city is likely to unsettle the leadership, following earlier protestations by Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja that his county had already borne the cost of Azimio demonstrations which disrupted normal operations.
“We've borne the cost of the disruption so far: Nairobians have patiently put up with the disruption, and their taxes have paid for its aftermath,” Mr Sakaja said following the start of the anti-State protests.
During the first protest, Mr Sakaja said the county collected half of its daily revenue, following the closure of shops and businesses.
Yesterday, Azimio Executive Council Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya insisted that the protests will resume in Nairobi to push the government to heed to their concerns, even as he maintained they were committed to an extra-parliamentary dialogue process that is “honest, transparent, meaningful and bipartisan in conception and execution”.
But Kenya Kwanza side dismissed the comments by Mr Oparanya, terming them ‘normal political statements aimed at managing their supporters’.
“The comments by Oparanya are outside the bipartisan team and as such treat them as normal political statements aimed at managing their supporters. We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow (today) and as Kenya Kwanza, we are keen on the talks,” said Bomet Senator Hillary Sigei, a member of the Kenya Kwanza bipartisan team.
He said theirs is an objective team committed to engage within the confines of the law and that anything extralegal or unconstitutional is not available to them.
But Mr Oparanya held that the government side lacks commitment on the talks.
“Today, we have come to the conclusion that, as we had feared, the commitment is lacking on the part of Kenya Kwanza. Among other indications of lack of commitment: Kenya Kwanza continues to insist on the inclusion of members of the Azimio Coalition in its team when the whole country knows that respect for multiparty democracy is one of the issues we have put on the table. Legally, Hon Adan Keynan remains an MP on Azimio ticket,” Mr Oparanya said in a statement.
He said it is a mockery of the envisaged dialogue to have Mr Keynan at the negotiation table for Kenya Kwanza.
He pointed out that Kenya Kwanza has also shown no commitment to lowering the cost of basic goods including unga, fuel, electricity and school fees.
“Instead, the Kenya Kwanza administration has resorted to propaganda that the costs have come down when the facts across Kenya indicate otherwise. Under the circumstances, Azimio has decided to resume peaceful protests,” the ODM deputy party leader said.
But the President’s allies who spoke to Nation accused Mr Odinga’s camp of being insincere by reverting to the street protests at the expense of dialogue which the President had agreed to.
Yesterday, Kenya Union Party (KUP) leader and former West Pokot governor John Lonyangapuo also threw his weight behind the government side, insisting that his party is in the process of formally ditching Azimio.
Speaking to journalists at a press briefing in Nairobi flanked by former Tiaty MP Asman Kamama, Prof Lonyangapuo said Mr Oparanya’s statement to resume anti-government protest ‘was founded on misrepresentation of facts and innuendo’.
“It exposes the coalition of anarchists for what it is and that their singular agenda remains to sabotage the current administration’s transformative agenda for the nation,” the KUP leader said.
He described as ‘hot air’ the allegations of obstacles to the talks, terming it a lame excuse to derail the nation from facilitating the realisation of the shared aspirations of 50 million Kenyans.
“The hypocrisy of the allegation that the inclusion of Eldas Member of Parliament Adan Keynan is a deal breaker shines the light on the inclusion of KUP Member of Parliament, the Pokot South MP David Pkosing.
“While Azimio is laying claim on Jubilee’s Keynan, they have equally included Pkosing, a member of KUP. KUP fully associates itself with the Kenya Kwanza administration, supports the bipartisan talks and the inclusion of Pkosing is equally offensive. Something Oparanya is not addressing in his statement,” Prof Lonyangapuo noted.
Last week, Azimio insisted that Kenya Kwanza should withdraw Mr Keynan from its team of negotiators, even as the government side also expressed reservations with Azimio’s inclusion of Mr Pkosing, insisting his KUP party is in a working arrangement with the government.
The bipartisan team then agreed to engage President Ruto and Mr Odinga on the committee’s composition, formalisation and the nature of talks — whether parliamentary or extra-parliamentary.
By yesterday evening, it was not yet clear whether the team had reached a compromise on the three issues ahead of today’s meeting which Dr Amollo said is expected to settle the framework agreement.
“The engagement (with appointing authorities) is ongoing. Usually an engagement is not something with timelines and all that. Ours was an engagement with ourselves and the appointing authorities and it is ongoing,” said the Rarieda MP.
Mr Murugara, the bipartisan team’s co-chair, yesterday refused to comment on the underlying issues with, Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse and nominated Senator Essy Okenyuri referring Nation to the co-chairs for a formal statement.
“Please talk to our co- chairs. We resolved that they will be our spokespersons,” Mr Mutuse told Nation.
