The Azimio coalition has officially unveiled the names of its five negotiators for dialogue between the opposition and the Kenya Kwanza coalition.
The Azimio side will be led by Wiper Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka and include DAP-Kenya leader Eugene Wamalwa, Minority Whip Opiyo Wandayi, Malindi MP Amina Mnyazi and Nyamira Senator Okong’o O’Mogeni.
Kenya Kwanza is expected to announce its team later today.
The Azimio team was agreed upon during a meeting at Azimio leader Raila Odinga’s Karen residence on Sunday, which Azimio chairman Uhuru Kenyatta also attended. Azimio has a five-point agenda includes the high cost of living, audit of the 2022 elections, bipartisan reconstitution of IEBC, inclusivity in national affairs, and respect for constitutionalism.
This comes even as Pokot South lawmaker David Pkosing revealed tensions between President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua amid a push for talks between the ruling coalition and Azimio One Kenya Alliance.
According to Pkosing, Kenya Kwanza has yet to agree on a united way forward, as the President and his deputy seem to be reading from different scripts on talks with the opposition.
Pkosing said that President William Ruto was open to talks with the Azimio Coalition Party talks in a bid to tone down the political confrontation, but Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is categorically opposed to the move.
“If you look at the President’s body language, he wants talks and wants to unite this country, and that has been his body language from the beginning, even in the bipartisan talks of five members,” Pkosing stated.
“You could see who represented the President and Deputy President. The DP does not want this country to unite; they want to blackmail the president.”
His claims were, however, refuted by National Assembly Majority whip Sylvanus Osoro who accused the Azimio La Umoja faction of tainting DP Gachagua’s image as a political antagonist, arguing that the DP has the nation’s best interests at heart.
“Many things that the Deputy President says are not very new; it’s only that nobody has the confidence to say them in public. I like him for who he is; he says things as they are. He is focused on unifying this country,” Osoro stated.
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