Salasya trashes bipartisan talks, asks Ruto and Odinga to meet

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Salasya trashes bipartisan talks, asks Ruto and Odinga to meet

By Wangu Kanuri May 1st, 2023 2 min read

Mumias East MP Peter Salasya has trashed the bipartisan talks between the government and opposition and instead urged President William Ruto and opposition leader Raila Odinga to have talks on the plight of the nation.

Speaking after the Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei denied the Azimio la Umoja permission to hold anti-government protests on Tuesday, citing violence, looting, and deaths, Salasya shared that the country is plunging.

Further, he lamented that the counties had no money, the rate of unemployment was still high and the economic crisis in Kenya was sickening.

In order to salvage the situation, Salasya suggested that the two leaders alone should sit down and talk. In a tweet, the first-time parliamentarian said, “I want the President and Raila alone to sit and give us direction. It is going to be painful to have a country that has no political stability. Let them sit down and agree on how they will harmonize the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) issues and stabilising this country politically and economically.”

Mimi nataka president na Raila wao wawili pekee wakae pamoja watupe mwelekeo,its going to be painful to have a country that has no political stability,let them seat down and agree on how they will harmonise the iebc issues and stabilising this country politically and economically pic.twitter.com/DRv6c0PMWt

— Peter K. Salasya, MP (@P_Salasya) April 30, 2023

Also read: Stand-off as Police ban Azimio demos in Nairobi

President Ruto called for the bipartisan talks with Mr Odinga asking him to call off the demonstrations and engage in a discussion on the issues he was raising during the protests.

The Head of State shared that he would engage in the reconstitution of the IEBC through the bipartisan approach via Parliament.

This saw the 14-member committee leaders, 7 from the Kenya Kwanza and seven from Azimio la Umoja parties select politicians who would spearhead the deliberations.

However, the talks hit a snag after the leadership of both coalitions and the 14-member committee, in separate meetings last week but one was unable to resolve the sticky issues that include the composition of the mediation team, terms of reference, and nature of the talks specifically whether it’s an entirely parliamentary-driven initiative as the government wants.

This set the ball in both President Ruto and Mr Odinga’s court with the latter calling for Tuesday’s 2nd May’s protests.

Also read: Nairobi Governor Sakaja calls for peace ahead of Azimio protests