RAILA ANNOUNCES FRESH DEMOS

The Kenya Kwanza coalition has declared it’s opposition to the rival Azimio La Umoja coalition’s decision to exit the bipartisan talks.

Azimio on Wednesday announced its exit from the deliberations, saying that it has given Kenya Kwanza until next Tuesday to make up its mind.

The Raila Odinga-led coalition has hinted at calling for fresh demos on Tuesday, saying that it will at the time consider the talks to have completely collapsed.

But the Kenya Kwanza side has now indicated that it will try to convince the other team to come back to the negotiation table rather than the streets.

Kenya Kwanza Co-Chair George Murugara has said that he plans to have a meeting on the same with his Azimio counterpart Otiende Amollo on Monday.

“We are ready to resume talks even tomorrow. Azimio should not erect unnecessary roadblocks during the talks,” he said in a presser in parliament on Thursday.

He added that Azimio had no reason to leave the negotiation table, terming it’s decision to do that as premature and something that can be looked into.

“Invoking Clause 37 of the agreement was premature. We have Clause 34, which says if we fail to reach an agreement, then the co-chair of the two sides must sit and discuss the issues. This clause was skipped,” the Tharaka Member of Parliament said.

This week alone, Raila has twice hinted at the return of the protests, which would be a return of the ugly situations witnessed in the country before he called his initial street protests off.

He is demanding among others, opening of the IEBC election servers, lowering of the cost of living and a law to prevent party hopping.