Kenyan President William Ruto and opposition leader Raila Odinga have agreed to hold a dialogue aimed at ending the ongoing protests that have turned violent in recent weeks.
The two leaders plan to engage in a bipartisan parliamentary engagement to resolve the stalemate over the process of recruiting electoral commissioners. Following the truce, Mr Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party on Sunday called off the fourth round of protests planned for Monday but warned of a resumption to the demonstrations should the government renege on the deal to immediately form the bi-partisan parliamentary committee.
President Ruto had earlier set the stage for the ceasefire in a televised address to the nation, noting that the two weeks of protests had caused the deaths of three people with hundreds others injured. He said the violence had also ruined the economy.
The composition of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) selection panel has been one of the reasons Mr Odinga has called for the bi-weekly demonstrations, the others being lowering the cost of living, opening electoral servers to audit last year’s presidential election that Mr Odinga claims was rigged and reinstatement of four electoral commissioners forced out of office on accusations that they attempted to block Dr Ruto’s path to victory.
