Leaders representing different faiths addressing the media under the
umbrella Multi Sectoral Forum when they delivered a message of peace in
August 2017. PHOTO | NMG
National dialogue to ease political tension in Kenya is expected
to begin this week when the Multi Sectoral Forum, which has the backing
of an international committee, meets to roll out a roadmap that is
expected to end in June.
The opposition National Super
Alliance has maintained that dialogue with President Uhuru Kenyatta is
the only matter that would dissuade them from abandoning the planned
swearing in of Raila Odinga as the “people’s president” and
establishment of People’s Assemblies as a parallel structure to provide a
platform for its supporters to discuss their destiny.
Mr
Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, who was his running mate in the August
polls, are under pressure from their supporters to take oath of office
as president and deputy president respectively to participate in the
national dialogue with President Kenyatta as equals.
“If
Uhuru will not allow dialogue, Kalonzo and Raila will be sworn in.
Don’t blame us when we are sworn in,” said Mr Musyoka on Thursday in his
Kitui backyard after arriving from Germany, where his wife Pauline had
been hospitalised.
The Multi Sectoral Forum has already
encountered one hurdle after the Nasa leadership distanced itself from
the forum’s approach, which it said does not resonate with its key
demands — electoral justice, police reforms and constitutional review —
to protect devolution from constant attack from the national government.
The
Multi Sectoral Forum argues that the opposition’s demands called for
consultations to comprehensively address political, economic and social
concerns that emerged during the campaign period that nearly pushed the
country into crisis.
Businessman Lee Karuri, who co-chairs the Forum, told The EastAfrican that they will have to adjust their plan of action to meet the expectations of all Kenyans.
Other
players in the proposed dialogue are diplomats led by US ambassador to
Kenya Robert Godec and his German counterpart Jutta Frasch.
In
his Christmas Day message, Mr Odinga promised supporters a major
announcement in the new year, detailing Nasa’s roadmap to dialogue on
electoral justice and culminating in his being sworn in as the “people’s
president.”
Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka insist that their victory in August was stolen going by results in their possession.
Kenya
has endured the longest electoral period in the region, which began in
February with the release of the polls timetable that activated
campaigns within political parties and set the stage for the main
campaigns that kicked off in June, ushering in the August 8 general
elections.
Rwanda for instance, which also held its
election in the first week of August closed the electoral calendar when
President Paul Kagame was re-elected with a whopping 98 per cent of the
votes cast on August 4.
President Kagame consequently
named his Cabinet and started another seven-year term. President
Kenyatta, however, has not been able to name his Cabinet nearly a month
after swearing in as lobbying and horse trading force the Kenyan leader
to delay the unveiling of his new team.
With the
opposition warning that it will ultimately take office and rejecting
overtures to be co-opted into government, President Kenyatta and his
allies have been vetting the proposed Cabinet Secretaries to be unveiled
any time after New Year’s Day.
The Kenyan electoral
process was prolonged by a Supreme Court ruling that invalidated the
August 8 presidential elections, setting the stage for a repeat poll in
October.
The re-run was boycotted by the opposition on
the grounds that the electoral body had failed to address Nasa’s
“irreducible minimums” that sought a level playing field.
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