Don't expect much from the Azimio-Kenya Kwanza dialogue

In an interview with Spice FM, CYPRIAN NYAMWAMU, the Director, of Future of Kenya Foundation warns Kenyans to manage their expectations.

 What do you make of the current Bi-partisan talks initiative?

For me, I think both Kenya Kwanza and Azimio are forced into these talks out of self-preservation. For instance, it was President Ruto who first called for bipartisan talks when he felt the demonstrations were affecting the economy. The first time President Ruto suggested the need for bipartisan talks was on a Palm Sunday on April 9 this year. This was after a series of maandamano called by the Azimio brigade. This tells you that it was not that he really wanted talks but his desire was to get the demonstrators off the streets.  This was because they were really affecting the economy which the government had quantified at Sh3 billion a day. In an economy like this, the president was acting in self-preservation. He didn’t intend that there be talks and as you saw, the talks collapsed.

After the third installment of maandamano which Azimio called the third wave, it became painful because both citizens and police officers lost their lives, the economy was adversely affected, there were many injuries, and ethnic clashes were recorded. These events elicited suggestions on some form of talks to try and pull down the pressure.

 Why are you envisioning failure in these talks?

So for me, it was not the political class who said they want talks. Lately, we have heard the president say that we don’t want to get into talks under certain conditions, pressure, or discuss certain agenda, so you can already see that these talks are heading nowhere.

 But there has been a kind of desire by both Azimio and Kenya Kwanza to have these talks… what is your take?

Let me reiterate once more that they have been forced by conditions to hold talks they have not even agreed which kind of talks they are going to have.

 What then is your suggestion on the way forward as far as national negotiations are concerned?

What I think is important is the intra-elite negotiations; which are not talks about Kenya but the real issues that should be on the table.

The rest of the stakeholders outside Parliament have been having a conversation since 2017 about what this country requires if we are going to avoid clashes after every election. Sadly, in the calls to these conversations, the government side irrespective of who was at the helm has chosen to ignore the factor of inclusivity as part of the structure and principles of genuine dialogue. In fact, they have said they don’t want dialogue, what they want is some talks and conversations.

 What do you think are Kenyans’ expectations and vision in national dialogue?

The citizen’s expectations and idea of a national dialogue is not in tandem with what that of the political class. During demonstrations, we have seen several sectors including civil societies, religious groups, social groups, student and youth movements, and women's movements, among others, advocating for similar issues that need to be addressed in the country. This shows that Kenyans have a clear understanding of what they want and the kind of national dialogue that they want.

If we have to revisit the 2008 Kofi Annan report, especially in regard to the agenda 4 items. For the last 60 years since we got our independence, there have been issues that the political class has never opted to discuss conclusively. These have been listed in all reports but they will not be discussed because the people in power have been accused of being architects of the problems. The items in this report include historical injustices, land reforms, regional imbalances, ethnic animosity, etc. 

Those in government generally do not want national conversations about those issues. Therefore, they create a very limited number of issues such as reconstituting IEBC and other things, and say this is what we all need and once we are done with them, then we are okay. However, these are knee-jerk reactions that are meant to achieve temporary results. Let us go back to the root of Kenyan problems and we would have solved the political misunderstandings to a great extent.