Nasa leader Raila Odinga addresses opposition supporters following a
party retreat in Mlolongo in Machakos County on November 25, 2017. PHOTO
| NMG
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s attempts to extend an olive branch to
the opposition aimed at healing the country is proving to be an uphill
task.
Leaders of the main opposition coalition,
National Super Alliance (Nasa) keep making fresh demands to be met
before they recognise President Kenyatta’s administration and pave the
way for national dialogue.
According to the opposition,
the first item on the agenda for dialogue with President Kenyatta
should be electoral justice to discuss if the October 26 repeat
presidential elections reflected the will of the majority of Kenyans.
The second item is police brutality, which has left scores of their supporters and three innocent children dead.
In
his inauguration speech, President Kenyatta said that his next agenda
will be the unity of Kenyans and service delivery to all, including
opposition regions, which boycotted the repeat presidential elections.
“I
undertake to be the custodian of the dreams of all, and to be the
keeper of the aspirations of those who voted for me and those who did
not...,” said President Kenyatta at Nairobi’s Moi International Sports
Centre Kasarani.
But the opposition termed President Kenyatta’s call for dialogue with the opposition a public relations exercise.
“Until
the president makes efforts to reach out to us, this is just PR stunts,
meant to open the floodgates for congratulatory messages from foreign
countries. This is the same paragraph he had in his 2013 speech but he
did nothing,” said Kibisu Kabatesi, spokesman for Amani National
Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi, one of the Nasa principals.
Litmus test
The
National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) — a state-owned
agency charged with the responsibility of promoting harmony among
Kenyans — put the task of unity among Kenyans at the door steps of
President Kenyatta and Nasa leader Raila Odinga.
“The
political differences must be settled at the top with the protagonists
first finding their own political solutions, but we at NCIC are planning
to hold meetings with affected communities and persuade them to live
peacefully,” said NCIC CEO Hassan Mohamed.
But
President Kenyatta’s commitment to spearheading national cohesion and
reconciliation could run into trouble after Nasa warned that it will not
participate in vetting of Cabinet Secretaries, to deny his government
legitimacy.
While compiling a list of Cabinet
Secretaries in itself is a litmus test for President Kenyatta’s
commitment to addressing exclusion complaints due to the number of
politicians he promised plum government jobs, threats by the opposition
to sabotage the vetting has cast doubts over whether the country can
pull together in the near future.
Newly appointed
minority leader John Mbadi said the opposition will not send names of
its representatives to the committee to vet Cabinet Secretaries.
However,
the ruling Jubilee Party has said that all regions will be included in
the government, warning that exclusion of senior politicians does not
mean other communities have been sidelined.
“We will
have a Cabinet that represents the face of Kenya. If we don’t have Raila
Odinga or Kalonzo Musyoka but there are other people from their
community, does not mean they have been excluded,” said David Murathe, a
key ally of President Kenyatta.
The opposition game
plan still remains push for electoral reforms that would guarantee
credible elections in future, a demand that the Jubilee Party has
embraced, “but only if pursued through legal means.”
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