Sonko claims Kalonzo, Eugene, Kioni and Karua will be left out by Raila
Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has claimed that the Azimio la Umoja party leader Raila Odinga will hang his party members to dry when he meets President William Ruto.
This comes hours after Mr Odinga called off the ‘mother of all protests’ slotted for today, Monday, April 3, 2023. This was after President Ruto welcomed the call for a peaceful resolution.
On his part, Sonko feels that Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka, Martha Karua of NARC-Kenya, Eugene Wamalwa of DAP-K, and ousted Jubilee’s secretary general Jeremiah Kioni will be left in the cold when Mr Odinga meets up with the Head of State.
“These ones are about to be left in the cold as usual,” he tweeted, attaching a photo of the quadruple.
These ones are about to be left in the cold as usual.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/pjYy9QFe0H
— Mike Sonko (@MikeSonko) April 3, 2023
Also read: Reorganize your team before meeting Ruto, lawyer tells Raila
Arguably, after the 2017-2018 general elections, which saw former President Uhuru Kenyatta win, he neutralised the growing tensions by engaging in a handshake with Mr Odinga who was second in the race.
Those he had formed alliances with by then were left in the open.
On Sunday, hours before the planned Monday’s protests, Mr Odinga while calling off the demonstrations, insisted that the bipartisan committee proposed by Dr Ruto should be established immediately, further warning to return to mass action within a week should the talks fail.
“We agree that a balanced parliamentary process co-chaired by both sides and backed by experts from outside should proceed. In our view, this committee should be composed with immediate effect with strict deadlines for resolving the crisis facing the country.”
He added, “In view of the foregoing, we stand down our demonstrations for Monday but in doing so we want to emphasise that we reserve the right to call for demonstrations should this process bear no fruit. Should there be no meaningful engagement or response from Hon Ruto to our counter-offer, we’ll resolve to resume our demonstrations after one week.”
While the calling off of the protests was anti-climatic to some of Mr Odinga’s supporters, the three days of protests have been characterised by bloodshed, civilians and journalists being injured, deaths, and loss of property.
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