MP to Raila: Call Ruto, he will listen to you

By Peter Ochieng

A Member of Parliament (MP) is urging Azimio leader Raila Odinga to call President William Ruto, ahead of demos planned for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week.

According to Tetu MP Geoffrey Wandeto, Odinga should pick up his phone and call the Head of State, if he is interested in the welfare of Kenyans.

He said any form of contact between the two leaders will lead to the call off, of the planned demos.

“The solution is for Baba to just call off tomorrow's riots. He has the phone number of President William Ruto, if he has five or ten points on how we can fix this cost-of-living issue, let him call the president, I don’t think the president will refuse. If the president doesn’t pick, let him send him a WhatsApp,” Wandeto told Citizen TV on Tuesday morning.

Odinga has insisted that the three-day demos are on, despite a warning from President Ruto that they will not happen.

MP Wandeto opines that Raila and the entire Azimio brigade call for protests, has nothing to do with the high cost of living.

He claims Odinga is yet to accept the fact that he lost the presidential contest to Ruto, during last year's polls.

“I don’t see why we require the international community if the issue is the cost of living. Let us call a conference on how to reduce the cost of living, this thing is a political situation; someone has not accepted that the political competition is settled through election but he would prefer to settle it in another way,” said the legislature.

On his part, Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka said the President and the opposition leader have 24 hours to save or break Kenya.

"So I hope that President William Ruto and my party leader Raila Odinga will realize that they have about 24 hours and this country is either going to break or is going to be saved. I don't think there is anything that will look cowardly if both men and other interested parties talk."

Religious leaders have intensified calls for Ruto and Odinga to dialogue, in a bid to prevent the country from sliding into anarchy.