Opposition leader Raila Odinga took a calculated risk of negotiating with President Uhuru Kenyatta in the hope of averting bloodshed, Salim Lone has said.
In a statement on Saturday, Lone said the explosive stalemate had to be broken and a level of peaceful harmony restored.
He said such an environment, in which discussions could be held on how to address these deeply divisive passions, was necessary.
"As he had repeatedly asserted, dialogue was always Raila's priority as the way to resolve this threatening crisis," Lone said in a statement on Saturday.
"That dialogue had to be preceded by an agreed agenda that included fighting the electoral injustice that had occurred."
He spoke following the two antagonists' meeting at Harambee House on Friday.
Raila and Uhuru buried the hatched of the bruising 2017 electoral battle that had taken toll on Kenya's social and economic well-being.
The meeting at the Office of the President took the country by surprise, ending with a joint address to the nation and a press statement.
On the steps of Harambee House on live television, Raila said the time had come to resolve their differences.
Also see:
Uhuru said: "We have come to a common understanding that this country is greater than any one individual, and that for this country to come together leaders must come together."
The two announced a plan for a programme to overcome a deep and long-standing ethnic and political divide, but gave few details of what it might involve.
Read:
Salim, who is Raila's adviser, said the NASA leader was confident that all the ills that imperil this nation will be addressed in the programme that is being drawn up.
"....given the overwhelming demand for change that Kenyans have shown in the last few months, we have never seen such national grassroots mobilisation for change in our country's independent history," he said.
"That kind of public pressures augurs well for the success of the two leaders' efforts, both of whom made concessions to get the process underway."
With Kenya breaking point and growing political and economic injustices, Salim said Raila chose yet again a path he often has: "the path of negotiation rather than confrontation."
He said the move has "protected the people from the horrors that this drawn-out, looming conflict posed."
"Finding an immediate solution to injustices when a country has such deep rooted ills and entrenched interests is not always possible," Lone added.
Read:
Also read: