The two protagonists turned friends then went on to announce that their rapprochement would mean an end to the violence, bitterness and political instability that followed the disputed elections and put the economy on the path to recovery.
Defusing ethnic competition, strengthening devolution, inclusivity, avoiding divisive elections, security and shared prosperity is all Kenya needs to be at peace with itself and continue in its journey of improving the lives of its citizens. Just five weeks earlier, Mr Odinga and his opposition supporters had put the country on a cliff-hanger with his January 31 swearing-in as the ‘’people’s president’’ at Nairobi’s Uhuru Park amid threat of bloody clashes with security forces.īut when they stood on the steps of Harambee House, the Office of the President, in central Nairobi on March 9 to announce the truce, the two leaders offered a diagnosis of what ails Kenya that did not surprise many. The handshake came just four months after Mr Kenyatta was controversially sworn in for a second and final term following a repeat election that Mr Odinga’s opposition alliance boycotted and dismissed as a farce. It pulled Kenya back from the brink, cooled the excruciating political heat that followed the contested August and October 2017 presidential elections, put the country on the path of reconciliation and created space for a resumption of economic activity that had come to a near standstill. If there is one thing that significantly transformed Kenya’s socio-political and economic landscape in 2018, it can only be the March 9 political truce between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga - popularly known as ‘the Handshake’.
0 kommentar(er)
