AZIMIO LA UMOJA STATEMENT

APRIL 18, 2023.

AZIMIO LA UMOJA STATEMENT

This morning, the leadership of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party including those from the houses of Parliament met with our representatives to the envisaged national dialogue to review developments on the envisaged talks.

Any reasonable observer of happenings in the last few weeks will agree with us that Kenya Kwanza has no intention whatsoever to hold any dialogue at all, let alone one that is honest, transparent and bipartisan. 

They have exhibited absolute bad faith from the beginning and we will highlight the same as follows.

1. When Hon. Ruto invited us for talks, he did not in his speech, capture the entire framework for talks as had been agreed upon with the emissaries he sent to us. This includes leaving out key issues on the cost of living and electoral justice which are of utmost importance to us and the people of Kenya

2. The delay in naming his team was another sign of a lack of seriousness that was made worse by the inclusion of members of the Azimio Coalition in his team when the whole country knows that respect for multiparty democracy is one of the issues we have put on the table

3. To date, Kenya Kwanza has failed to name the leadership of its team as a way of stonewalling.

4. Last evening, we learned of a motion drafted by the KK leadership allegedly aimed at setting up a joint select committee in Parliament. 

The motion is in absolute bad faith for the following reasons

a) We have insisted on an extra parliamentary process in view of the strictures of debate in Parliament. We will therefore not participate in any such parliamentary process

b) The motion is disguised as a product of bipartisanship when in fact the leadership of Azimio in Parliament were neither aware nor consulted in its drafting

c) The motion purports to name members of the Minority Party to the so called select committee without any reference to the Minority leadership in violation of the Standing Orders of both houses

d) The motion purports to set the terms of reference and scope of the discussions without any reference us. We continue to insist that the dialogue must be about all the four issues namely the cost of unga, fuel and electricity, forensic audit of the servers, bipartisan reconstitution of the IEBC and respect for multiparty democracy. 

Kenya Kwanza cannot dictate to us what we cannot bring to the table

Given the foregoing, we as the leadership of the coalition have resolved as follows:

1. We remain committed to an extra parliamentary dialogue that is honest, transparent, meaningful and bipartisan in conception and execution. Our members of parliament in both houses shall not be party to any other process and particularly not the one proposed in the motion by Kenya Kwanza.

2. We have instructed the Chairperson of our team to formally invite the Kenya Kwanza team for a meeting to set the ground rules for the talks.

3. Our issues remain what we said they are: REDUCTION IN COST OF UNGA, FUEL, ELECTRICTY AND SCHOOL FEES; OPENING & AUDIT OF IEBC SERVERS; BIPARTISAN REFORM AND RECONSTITUTION OF IEBC, REINSTATEMENT OF THE FOUR IEBC COMMISSIONERS, and END TO THE BUYING OF MPS WHICH THREATENS MULTIPARTY DEMOCRACY.

4. We reiterate the call that the regime must immediately take up the hospital bills of all Kenyans who sustained injuries as a result of police brutality during the recent protests and pay reparations for those who lost property.

5. That the coalition shall resume its weekly protests at the end of Ramadhan and there shall be further communication in this regard.

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