Inside Ruto’s Reconciliatory Approach That Forced Raila Odinga To Call Off Kenya Protests
Kenya’s President William Ruto’s decision to reverse a hardline approach amid waves of protests by the opposition opened the door for talks, opposition leader Raila Odinga said in an interview with BBC.
On Sunday President Ruto addressed the nation for the first time since the protests began over the high cost of living and alleged electoral irregularities.
The president agreed to one of Mr Odinga’s demands- a bipartisan engagement in parliament on the formation of the next electoral commission.
But he suggested he won’t engage the opposition leader on his other demands, including the cost of living and legitimacy of his presidency.
Mr Odinga welcomed Mr Ruto’s “climbdown” and insisted that all issues must be put on the table.
” Mr Ruto came up with what you can call an olive branch. He said he’s now ready to do negotiations. This is basically a climbdown”. Odinga said.
” That’s why we said that we can embrace dialogue so long as he’s ready to put all the issues that we are talking about on the table.” he added.
