By James Wafula In Nairobi
The NGO council of Kenya has welcomed the decision by the Azmio opposition suspending street protests for one month to give bipartisan talks a chance to iron out the political differences with the government.
In a press statement issued Thursday May 4 2023 at his Nyayo house headquarters in Nairobi, Council Chairman Stephen Kipchumba Cheboi said the decision by the Azmio leadership was in the interests of the country and has brought down political temperatures enabling wananchi to go about their business.
“We must now urge both parties the government and the opposition to walk the talk and avoid taking hard-line positions that only advance further animosity by muddying the waters and fueling unnecessary tension.”
He said it would be most unfortunate if both parties again squander this opportunity to finalise all differences once and for all adding that politicians should stop holding the country at ransom.
‘As a council with nationwide members through 14,000 branches we urged our people to educate Kenyans on the need to vote peacefully on August 8 2022 and they all heard us and remained calm even when matters went to the supreme court,” Cheboi observed.
He said that the country need to settle down and tackle urgent economic issues as it is now running to a year since the closely contested P residential elections were held. “What we know and most people is that in every contest there must be one winner and one loser as a product of multi-party democracy.”
He said the opposition is central to the proper functioning of a multi-party democracy as it plays the watchdog role of auditing the government of the day to ensure it delivers on its election manifesto.
“As much as the constitution allows demonstrations and picketing this cannot be an open ended activity paralyzing economic activities and shutting down the economy still recovering from the disabling covid 19 global pandemic of 2021-2022” he further noted.
He urged President William Ruto and opposition leader Raila Odinga to lead by example and bring to a stop the post election bickering that is badly hurting the economy by scaring away investors and tourists. He said bipartisan talks can be expanded to include civil society as a way of enriching the consultative process■
