Azimio statement on NADCO report

November 29, 2023

After three months of difficult negotiations, the National Dialogue Committee submitted its report last Sunday. As we all recall, the talks were preceded by a stolen election, sweat, tears, police brutality and death, amid a steep rise in the cost of living, which has only got worse as the talks concluded.

We want to thank all the people of Kenya, the media fraternity and other stake holders, for exercising great patience and restraint as the dialogue continued. I thank the members, from both sides of the talks, for the commitment and dedication to national duty.

After the initial tension and mistrust, which was expected, the parties jelled and worked well together. Trust returned in their ranks and they were then able to show a strong commitment to peace and reconciliation and the strengthening of institutions and governance processes in Kenya.

The document the team has come up with is, ultimately, imperfect and unfinished. But it is a beginning. We have agreed to disagree on the most important matter to us. We made what believed were reasonable proposals on how to address the rising cost of living.

But the government side flatly refused terming it their exclusive business and further arguing that they got the mandate of Kenyans to execute their Kenya Kwanza economic agenda.

We will be engaging Kenyans further in the coming weeks as we must because the pain of the cost of living is really unbearable. In the coming weeks the majority of Kenyans will be carrying the burden of increased school fees and increased healthcare costs; besides the many crises in both the education and health sectors. Employees of the NHIF are now in limbo not knowing their future employment status. Be that as it may, we have come this far because of a commitment to constructive engagement and positive energy and sacrifice for the sake of our beloved country Kenya.

Our team was able to get positive results on a number of the issues that we had set out in our demands. These include Electoral Justice which encapsulates audit of the 2022 election process, restructuring and reconstitution of the IEBC, increase of the timelines for the Supreme Court to hear and determine a presidential election petition from 14 to 21 days and a commitment to the spirit and fidelity to multiparty democracy.

We were also able to agree on the transfer of all devolved functions and the requisite resources to the county governments in addition amending the Constitution to provide for the equitable share to the County Governments to not less than 20% of all revenue collected by the National Government from the current 15% and the establishment of the Ward Development Fund.

We believe that these are significant reform mileages that, if implemented, can help strengthen our governance and electoral processes and safeguard the march of democracy in Kenya.

Azimio however remains deeply disappointed that the committee was not able to agree on the one fundamental issue on which Kenyans are united across the political divide. The two teams were unable to agree on the need and the means to reduce the cost of living. This is why we have described the document the Committee presented as imperfect and unfinished.

It was not for lack of trying on our part that the committee was unable to agree on the issue of cost of living. Kenyans will recall that at the beginning of the talks, the Kenya Kwanza administration was adamant that cost of living would never be taken to the discussion table, let alone being discussed.

Kenya Kwanza had insisted that the only issues it was ready to discuss were: The reconstitution of the IEBC, Implementation of Two-Thirds Gender Rule, Entrenchment of Constituency Development Fund, Establishment and the entrenchment of the Office of the Leader of the Opposition and embedment of the Office of Prime Cabinet Secretary. Through persistence and insistence, we forced cost of living on to the table.

We had hoped that as the talks progressed while life got harder for Kenyans, Kenya Kwanza leaders could have the empathy, soften their hearts and agree to lessen the burden their policies had imposed on Kenyans.

Our delegation pushed for the complete overhaul of the Finance Act 2023, which had come with harsh taxation measures that made and continue to make life unbearable to an overwhelming majority of Kenyans. At no expense to the government, we deployed our team of economists to recommend to the administration measures which, if adopted, would immediately bring the cost of living down.

We asked the government to reduce travel budgets by 50%. We also called on the government to reduce the Daily Subsistence Allowances for State and Public Officers by 30 per cent. We further asked the government to reduce the road maintenance levy and the anti-adulteration levy by Sh5 and Sh3 per litre respectively.

Our team further asked the government reduce VAT on fuel from 16% to 8%. We called on the government to scrap the housing levy or at least make it voluntary and the courts have finally agreed with the Azimio position.

Unfortunately, Kenya Kwanza would not budge. Apparently, as the regime’s economic policies hardened life for Kenyans, so did the regime harden its heart.

We realized that without the good will of the top echelons of the Kenya Kwanza leadership, cost of living was never going to be addressed. They told our team that cost of living was a government issue; that they have a manifesto and the mandate of the people of Kenya to implement it.

Our team realized that the whole issue of cost of living is extremely sensitive in Kenya Kwanza circles because it is a gravy train on which many corrupt interests have converged.

Cost of fuel and food cannot come down because key people in government are eating from it. That is why Cabinet Secretaries and other Kenya Kwanza shareholders recently fought over oil in the high seas. That’s why KNTC is struggling with imported food commodities that are more expensive than locally sourced food. We got to understand that the Housing Levy, which even the courts have now found to be unconstitutional, cannot be scrapped because it is a gravy train.

It is from this levy that Kenya Kwanza hopes to build a campaign war chest for the next election. They forget that they may not get there. We realize that Kenya Kwanza cannot touch cost of living because it anchors the massive corruption that has returned to the country.

We made it clear that we completely disagree completely with the government on the matter of cost of living. We made it clear that we will support the document ensuing from the talks but we will treat the hardline on the cost of living as the beginning of another phase of this struggle. We will seek other ways to press the government to listen to the cries of the people and bring down the cost of living.

The other ways will include but will not be limited to consultations with the people. At all times, we will retain the right to call on the people to take steps that we deem necessary to force the government to lower the cost of living.

We also support the document with a provision that certain aspects must be approved by the people by way of a referendum. To create the office of the leader of opposition or to formalize the office of the prime cabinet secretary, the people of Kenya have to have their say by way of a referendum.

Besides it is a constitutional requirement that such significant restructuring of government must go through a referendum to avoid the mischief that may be played by some people going to court.

It is also our stand that this country cannot continue moving forward by being undecided. We have to agree whether we want a parliamentary, presidential or hybrid system. Thank you.