Jubilee Leaders Praise Foreign Envoys' Move to Push Raila to Recognise Kenyatta as President

Leaders drawn from Jubilee Party have lauded foreign envoys move to push National Super Alliance (Nasa) leader Raila Odinga to recognise Kenyatta as President.

Eleven ambassadors including Robert Godec (US), Nic Hailey (UK), Jutta Frasch (Germany), Alison Chartres (Australia), Sara Hradecky of Canada, Mette Knudsen (Denmark), Anna Jardfelt (Sweden), Victor Conrad Rønneberg (Norway), Frans Makken (Netherlands), Tarja Fernández (Finland) and Kim Ramoneda (France) on Sunday asked the opposition leader to first recognise Kenyatta as President, as beginning point for dialogue to end the current political impasse in the country.

“The Opposition needs to accept that Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto are the legitimate President and Deputy President of Kenya as the basis for the dialogue that it and many Kenyans want. Stoking and threatening violence is not acceptable, nor are extra-constitutional measures to seize power,” the envoys said in a joint statement.

Led by Jubilee Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju and National Assembly Leader of Majority Aden Duale, the leaders said the heads of mission's call confirmed there was no place for the Raila's "people’s presidency."

Duale stated that Jubilee will not agree to enter to any dialogue with Nasa, unless its only premised on how to develop the country.

“Our engagement can only be about development. On this parameter we are ready to engage our colleagues from the Opposition," he said. 

"If they want electoral reforms they can introduce some amendments and bring them to Parliament. The President has nothing to do with electoral changes."

Deputy President William Ruto's spokesperson David Mugonyi said President Kenyatta's legitimacy is drawn from the Constitution and the people, contrary to claims by the opposition.

"Not the Opposition; never the Opposition. The idea that a government needs Opposition recognition is absurd, perverse and illegitimate," said Mugonyi.

"The will of the people and the instruments of power as laid out in our supreme law are enough. Facts and reality cannot be changed by individuals' opinions. President Uhuru Kenyatta was elected by the people."

“The only way the country can be unified is if we accept the reality we are living in now. Kenyatta is the President and William Ruto is his deputy, and they were legally elected and sworn into office,” Nyeri Town MP Wambugu Ngunjiri said.