- President William Ruto and former prime minister Raila Odinga met on the night of Friday, July 28, in a Mombasa hotel and agreed to have bilateral talks
- However, the talks are already off to a bumpy start as mistrust, accusations, and counter-accusations crop up between the two camps
- The bones of contention seem to be emanating from the agenda as the government and Opposition disagree on whether to discuss the ballooning cost of living
- TUKO.co.ke spoke to some political pundits who waded into some of the challenges that planned bipartisan talks are facing
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On Sunday, July 30, President William Ruto revealed the intricate details of his private meeting with his political archrival Raila Odinga after their protracted political battles culminated in deadly protests that killed tens of people in the country.
The secret meeting came at an opportune time to quell the rising tensions in the political sphere, as the anti-regime protests were already leaving a humongous trail of destruction in their wake and causing so much fear in the country.
The president and the former prime minister are reported to have met on the night of Friday, July 28, in a Mombasa hotel, where they both agreed to end the culture of violence propagated by politicians seeking to fulfil their own selfish interests.
"We agreed no leader, whether past, present or future, should spearhead protests that lead to deaths and destruction of property," the president revealed.
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The two leaders agreed to give truce talks another shot, and this time, they even decided to have former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo facilitate the mediation discussion to achieve a desirable outcome.
However, no sooner had Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah released a statement on the planned truce talks with the Opposition that the accusations and counter-accusations between the two warring camps began.
In his statement, Ichung'wah, on the evening of Saturday, July 29, confirmed the government and the Opposition will have peace talks mediated by Obasanjo.
He also listed the agendas of the forthcoming talks, and the cost of living was conspicuously missing from the list.
This came as a surprise to many Kenyans who had hoped that the very least, the Azimio Protests would pressure the government to pay more attention to the skyrocketing cost of living that has plunged many into unimaginable struggles and poverty.
The Raila-led Opposition would come under heavy criticism as many opined that they used the cost of living as a smokescreen for a handshake with the first in command.
Disagreements on agendas
Amid the criticism, Azimio had to release a statement, disowning Kenya Kwanza's statement and reiterating that the cost of living was their priority in the discussions.
According to Azimio, the economic crisis that has plunged many Kenyans into poverty, electoral audit and IEBC reforms, non-interference in coalitions and their constituent parties, and police brutality are the agendas it wants discussed.
Kenya Kwanza, on the flip side, listed the reconstitution of the IEBC, implementation of 2/3 gender rule, entrenchment of the Constituency Development Fund, establishment and the entrenchment of the Office of the Leader of the Opposition and the embedment of the Office of Prime Cabinet Secretary as their preferred talking points.
It was already clear that the two camps could not agree on the issue of the cost of living being an agenda in the upcoming talks. ODM even accused Kenya Kwanza of belittling the demands that took them to the streets from the word go.
ODM Communications Director Philip Etale, in a strong-worded statement on Twitter, accused the Kenya Kwanza faction of trivialising the issues that led to the anti-government protests and insisting on the not-so-important issues affecting Kenyans.
Consequently, Azimio now has to save face and prove they did not use the cost of living to fuel emotions to get President Ruto's attention.
Cost of living takes backseat in talks
Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, political analyst Wilson Rotich, who is also a lecturer from Kisii University, said there is a high probability that Azimio used the cost of living as an easy catch that the common mwananchi could identify with.
Rotich, who opined that food prices could soon come down with the anticipated bumper harvest after farmers received the subsidized fertiliser, said ideally, the cost of living should not be among the issues discussed in the Azimio-Kenya Kwanza talks.
"In the next two months, the cost of food will have tumbled down. That is the reason the Azimio team is insisting on placing on the agenda and limiting the talks to one month so that it cannot be overtaken by the bumper harvest," he said.
Rotich said Azimio wants to credit when the cost of living finally comes down, a risk that the government cannot take as it has been on the receiving end since the prices of basic commodities surged.
"The fact is, with or without the talks, the cost of living, at least on the side of food, is set to come down. But Azimio politicians just want to hold onto it as a future campaign agenda for the next polls," he added.
His comments were echoed by popular political analyst Javas Bigambo who also agreed that Azimio used the cost of living as a red herring.
From Bigambo's perspective, Raila and Ruto jointly agreed on the thematic discussion issues, and the ODM leader ostensibly consented to have that cost of living discussion take the backburner in the bilateral talks.
"It is curious why Azimio is departing from the axis of discussion issues. It could also be a way of showing allegiance to the defiance course originating the political crisis by the opposition," he said.
Mistrust between Azimio and Kenya Kwanza dialogue teams
ODM's recent complaint also points towards its lack of trust in the Kenya Kwanza dialogue team.
On Wednesday this week, the party's communications head accused the president of picking hardliners to engage them in the bipartisan talks.
"When dealing with weighty issues like the current situation in the country, the least Kenya Kwanza should have done would have been to release the names of their hardliners and stop at that lecturing Azimio on matters decency beats the purpose of the process," he said.
He also accused the Kimani Ichung'wah-led dialogue team of using disrespectful language.
However, political pundits disagreed with the hardliners' allegation, saying Azimio should not expect to have a say in whoever Kenya Kwanza picks for the talks.
According to Bigambo, the Raila-led team could be intentionally sabotaging the talks before they even begin going by the numerous complaints they have had so far.
"This is a manifestation of the wilful incubation of the collective intent by Azimio to refuse to take part in the bilateral talks or reject the outcome of the process. It should not be in the place of Azimio to determine who from Kenya Kwanza should be on the negotiating team," he told TUKO.co.ke.
Jubilee National Youth Chair Advice Mundalo also wondered why ODM would lament over the supposed hardliners, yet they selected Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka to lead their team.
"Speaking of hardliners is simply being unrealistic. The two teams had the opportunity to pick people of their own choice; you can not demand that your opponent picks people of your interest if it were to be so, then one side would have picked the team for both," he told this writer.
'Nusu-mkate' politics banned during talks
Interestingly, the two camps have also expressly stated they will not advocate for power sharing during the talks.
While unveiling its troops on Wednesday, Kenya Kwanza stated it would not participate in discussions on 'nusu mkate'.
On the other hand, Raila and his team are on record saying they are not interested in a handshake truce akin to the one former president Uhuru had with Raila in 2018.
Azimio invites Kenya Kwanza to first joint meeting
In spite of the headwinds that the talks are already running into before their commencement, the two parties seem eager to get started with them.
On Friday, August 3, the Azimio la Umoja dialogue team invited their counterparts for the first joint meeting on August 7.
Kalonzo said Azimio wanted to commence the bipartisan talks as soon as possible and conclude by the end of August 2023.
"We believe a speedy start and a time-bound program is necessary to put the nation at ease. Consequently, we believe this process should end at the close of August 2023," he said.
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