New Efforts to Bring Raila, Ruto to the Negotiation Table

As the intensity of this week's demonstrations begins to wane, many foreign and local figures as well as spiritual leaders are doing their utmost to encourage President William Ruto and Raila Odinga to come to the negotiating table.

Reports claim that a President of a neighbouring nation is heavily involved in the endeavour to broker a truce between President Ruto and opposition leader Raila Odinga. Reliable sources say that the state head and the Azimio leader had a lengthy dialogue on Wednesday as intercontinental agencies including the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) began to express their worries about the nation's circumstances. Yesterday, Oburu Oginga, Raila's right-hand man and elder brother, said that Ruto's group is attempting to employ foreign forces to coerce them into dialogue. 

He made the statement amid President William Ruto's declaration of his intent to confront the opposition leader face-to-face. Oburu recalled that Azimio's attempts to reach a truce through a bipartisan approach failed to yield anything of significance. According to Oburu, even though the president's quota has not directly reached out to them for talks, they have been working through the international community to push for dialogue and put an end to the current protests.  

He declined to name the countries that had engaged them regarding the demonstrations. He declared that they will only consider engaging in conversation if the administration is earnest and further asserted that their planned anti-government protests will proceed next week for a three-day stint. He also criticised Kenya Kwanza for treating the failed bipartisan talks with nonchalance and for disregarding the demands presented by Azimio, which Kenyans hold dear. 

He denied Kenya Kwanza's assertions that his brother Raila is aiming to gain state control through a backdoor, emphasising that Raila is instead advocating for the Kenyan population. Oburu characterised President Ruto’s visit to Nyanza as a hostile act, mentioning that the timing of the visit is inappropriate. He believes President Ruto and his allies lack understanding of the difficulties experienced by Kenyans.