Kenya’s two topmost politicians seem to be getting sober by the day. From the signals being sent by President William Ruto and opposition leader Raila Odinga, the country can see some light at the end of an otherwise very long tunnel, albeit not so bright.
On Tuesday, Ruto sent the first clear communication indicating that he was willing to meet up with the former Prime Minister face to face in an attempt to discuss the contentious issues facing the country. Though Raila has since dismissed the communication as mere public relations exercise, mainly because the President chose to use one of his social media accounts to send the message, it is a step in the right direction.
Contrary to the previous hardline stand, the President seems to have realised that the country is more important than his personal feelings and the bravado oftentimes exhibited by some in his Kenya Kwanza coalition.
In a tweet that lacked the normal arrogance associated with the head of state especially when addressing the opposition, Ruto was clear he was reaching out to his former party leader now political nemesis. Ruto was once a leading member of the Orange Democratic Movement ODM. The President told Raila that he was heading to Tanzania but would be back after two days and would find time for a meeting with him.
Now, Raila may be justified to dismiss the President’s Social Media invite, because Social Media does not carry the seriousness that matters of life and death deserve. You see, the two sides of the country’s politics have been feuding for some time now. And the feud has since claimed tens of lives.
In fact, on Wednesday the ODM leader led the country in mourning those the feud has taken. Various accounts put the number of those who have died as a direct result of the feud between the government and the Opposition at between 30 and 50 in the month July alone. These are lives of Kenyan men, women and children that we needed not to lose.
They all would be alive today if the President and the opposition chief had not squabbled. But they are now no more. They were fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and children, husbands and wives to the rest of us who are lucky to be alive today. Not just statistics! It is therefore a bit insensitive for one of the principals in the war to invite the other on a platform as casual as social media. But now that it happened, one might be persuaded to hang on hope that a half a step is better than none and grab it!
Another reason why I’m tempted to believe that Ruto is genuine is the fact that he posted the tweet on a day he was travelling to Tanzania. On that very day, Raila had accused the President of snubbing his Tanzanian counterpart, who he had invited here to mediate between the two sides, for two days.
Raila claimed, believably, that President Samia Suluhu had been kept waiting until she gave up and went back home, her mission here having not been accomplished. That Ruto chose to follow her to her home country is a clear sign of goodwill. As much as we may not be privy to the specifics of the deliberations between the two presidents, chances are high the trouble in Kenya was top on the agenda.
With the President back in the country and efforts to put together teams for round the table talks looking promising, one can only hope that both sides are genuinely seeking solutions to the problems the country is facing. Personally, I have always held that we need a multi-sectoral team on the table and not just politicians. But again, we need to start somewhere and do that urgently. Before another life is lost or property destroyed in the now famous maandamano!
Speaking of the round-table deliberations. It is the country’s hope that the dialogue we so urgently expect will be deliberations and not negotiations. Being the politicians that they are, we may not be surprised if at the end of the day the participants end up with slots and positions for themselves and the sides they represent. That would be very unfortunate and the spirits of those who have since paid the ultimate price will surely not rest in peace.
When the representatives of the two opposing sides finally meet, the country expects nothing less a genuine, selfless evaluation of the problems facing the residents of this nation and finding solutions thereto.
We expect that by the end of the deliberations, solutions will be found on how to lower and sustain the cost of living, find a way of taming the ever-rising appetite for taxes and manage the public debt. The country expects that the people sitting in that room will sort out issues of election management, especially the composition of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the attendant technology.
We also expect that once the deliberations are done with every Kenyan will feel like shareholders in the country irrespective of their ethnic or geographical background. After all, this is Kenya and Kenya is our business, all of us.
Political commentator