President William Ruto team in the bipartisan talks has appealed to Azimio to reconsider their stand on the stalled dialogue a day after the opposition called off Wednesday street demonstrations.
Kenya Kwanza bipartisan chairman George Gitonga said they are ready to re-engage the opposition around the issue of the reconstitution of IEBC, which he said is long overdue.
He was, however, quick to point out that the talks must be within the law.
“We have not given up on the talks but they must be premised on the reconstruction of the IEBC only. We are waiting to hear from them over the matter,” Murugara told a press conference at Parliament Building.
“We are prepared to renewed talks. We are calling on Azimio side to confirm if they are ready for the talks. ”
The Tharaka MP also revealed they he has written to his counterpart, Raried MP Otiende Amollo, about the resumption of the talks.
But Otiende, while reacting on the statement, said the talks have been suspended and until the principals okays the resumption, he will not honour any invite for engagement.
The legislator said the same goodwill that saw the collapse of the talks is still evident.
“The absence of good faith is still there, more importantly, I am not in a position to comment because my authority was withdrawn when the talks were suspended,” Otiende said.
“I was the chairman of Azimio bipartisan team, when it became clear there was lack of good faith, we were instructed to suspend the talks and withdraw and that is what we did. We don't have such powers to participate in the talks.”
The two sides at the same time disagreed on the agenda to be discussed incase the talks resume.
However, Otiende told a press conference that all the matters identified by the bipartisan team have not been vacated and should be the basis of any talks.
“How would you resume talks for only one time? Since the suspension of the talks, the biggest issue has been the cost of living. You cannot say that is not even on the table,” he said.
Azimio, while announcing the suspension of the talks in April, blamed the Kenya Kwanza of not showing goodwill after the government side refused to co-assign letters to IEBC selection panel to suspend the hiring process of the election chiefs for 30 days as the issue was one of the agenda items.
