Church leaders, especially Catholic bishops, led other emissaries in brokering the “ceasefire” announced on Sunday evening, the Star has learnt.
The government, according to sources, totally declined the call for a direct round table discussion with Raila or any of the Azimio leaders.
“President Ruto was adamant that his leadership is founded on the bottom-up approach as represented in Parliament and the Kenya Kwanza Alliance partners. That meant he would not be pulled into a one-on-one discussion on national issues with an individual,” an aide said.
On Sunday, Ruto asked Raila to call off weekly demonstrations in exchange for the formation of a bipartisan parliamentary approach to the resolution of the Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission reconstitution issue.
The Azimio leader agreed to call off the protests for one week so that the opposition can have dialogue with the government through Parliament.
On Monday, the President met the Kenya Kwanza parliamentary leadership team to discuss the way forward.
“We are convinced that the issues shall be conclusively handled by Parliament to allow us to focus on our economic transformation programme,” Ruto said.
It is understood the President and his deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, refused to entertain the notion of any compromise for a hybrid government when they spoke to various emissaries last week.
Instead, they asked the opposition to support proposals for the creation of the leader of the official Opposition, which is pending in Parliament.
During the shuttle diplomacy, Azimio was confronted with an already drafted petition calling for the International Criminal Court intervention, while the bishops mounted pressure on the opposition by insisting “as the architects of the demos, Azimio was directly responsible for all the outcomes.”
The Church leaders also told Azimio that they would not support sharing of power as a solution.
“The Church was adamant that post-election deals totally undermined the entire purpose and objective of an electoral process,” one of the bishops said.
On the cost of living, the bishops were not convinced it was possible to suddenly lower unga prices.
Western diplomats, led by British High Commissioner Jane Marriott and her US counterpart Meg Whitman, also piled pressure on the Opposition when they issued a joint confidential statement responding to Raila’s attacks.
The diplomats made it clear they did not support or agree in the opposition’s activities and reasons for calling for demonstrations as they fell below the threshold of any political standard.
The ODM chief had accused the diplomats of looking the other way as the government used excessive force to stop demonstrations.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
