NAIROBI, Kenya — After President William Ruto urged his opponents to negotiate with him, the leader of the Kenyan opposition, Raila Odinga, issued a call on Sunday for a temporary halt to anti-government protests in the country.
Ruto has stated that he wishes to hold talks with opponents to discuss the selection process for members of Kenya’s electoral commission.
This is a move that was made to stop the growing disenchantment. The responsibility of the commission includes both the administration of national elections and the announcement of the winners.
In addition, the opposition has demanded that the electoral body grant access to its computers and has accused the electoral body of tampering with the results of the election.
Odinga challenged Ruto’s victory in the 2022 election, but the Supreme Court of the country upheld the result. Odinga announced that the opposition would not hold the demonstrations that were scheduled to take place on Monday, but he issued a warning that they would resume if the government did not resolve the issues.
The demonstrations from the week before were violent, and as a result, one law enforcement officer and four protesters were killed. Businesses in the nation’s capital, Nairobi, were negatively impacted, and there was some looting that occurred during the demonstrations.
During the past week, additional businesses were forced to close twice. Both privately owned places of business and houses of worship were destroyed in the fire.
The opposition wants the government to address a variety of issues, one of which is the steadily rising cost of living.
The government and the opposition had been urged by religious groups to give dialogue a chance to prevent the country from descending into post-election violence similar to that which occurred in 2007 and resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people.
The opposition in Kenya has a track record of calling for significant demonstrations, some of which have resulted in fatalities and have brought the economy to a standstill.
