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Tuesday, April 4, 2023

"No 'handshake' with Opposition leader", Kenya President insists

By Kevin Cheruiyot, KIGALI Rwanda

President of Kenya, William Ruto has again insisted that there will be no Handshake between him and opposition's Azimio la Umoja One kenya coalition leader, Raila Odinga.

Addressing a press conference in Kigali, Rwanda on Tuesday, Ruto said that the recent approach from his government to allow the Opposition Coalition to table their issues with them is not a way of bringing onboard their team.

While responding to the question from one of the journalists during a joint press address with his host President Paul Kagame, Ruto said: “I want to tell you there will be no handshake, but there will be an engagement in Parliament on the issues that have been raised. Those that the Parliament can resolve, they will be resolved.”

He said his only mission was to ensure that the country’s democracy is not undermined.

“We have a government and opposition. We don't want democracy to be undermined. Kenyans want a democracy where the system of checks and balances works," President Ruto said.

The concept of a handshake in Kenya refers to a truce between retired President Uhuru Kenyatta and his then-political nemesis, Mr Odinga, which was sealed in a handshake on March 2018.

“Unfortunately, for us in Kenya, a handshake has a different connotation, and that is what I’m talking about. The handshake that brings the opposition and government into some conundrum, and a mongrel and an outfit that is undemocratic, unconstitutional and illegal.” Said Ruto.

He noted that Kenya was a democratic nation, where checks and balances are underpinned with the opposition side playing its role of keeping the government on its toes.

“The history we have of a handshake is where there was a fusion of government and the opposition and the results were disastrous. There wasn’t any accountability, the whole system went rogue, and the people of Kenya do not want a situation where democracy is undermined,” he added.

Also, the president said that the opposition side declared their parallel results of the presidential election which they are yet to reveal the origin, other than saying that they were given to them by a whistleblower.

“Subsequently, somehow the opposition, after five months, decided to make a claim that they were told by the whistleblower that the results were possibly different. They haven’t been good enough to tell us who the whistleblower is and how they arrived at a different set of results than one that was released by our Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.” added the head of state.

The move to engage in dialogue was hailed as having saved the country from turmoil, as the demonstrations were turning more violent.

"The protests and demonstrations were acquiring an ugly and violent turn…It was time for them to reconsider those demonstrations.” Ruto said.

Kenyans were protesting, among other things, the high cost of living. At the same time, the opposition leaders were demanding that the servers at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission be opened to establish who truly won the last presidential election, and that the appointment of new electoral commissioners be stopped.

The two sides have since agreed to form special parliamentary teams to address the election-related issues.

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