Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has dismissed claims that he has urged President Willian Ruto to engage the opposition in a ‘handshake’.
This after Governor Sakaja on Sunday, emphasized the need to “engage all leaders” into discussions, noting that the Kenya Kwanza administration discourages the politics of exclusion.
“No one wants a handshake or nusu mkate. But you must acknowledge all leaders, you must be able to hear what are the legitimate concerns,” he said speaking after a church service at St. Joseph Mukasa in Nairobi.
He added: “This country is bigger than any one person this is our country and everyone must be made to feel as Kenyan as the other person .”
“The politics of exclusion is not the politics of Kenya Kwanza. Kenya Kwanza’s politics is politics of inclusion and I know that is what the president stands for.”
Not accurate. I have not asked for a handshake but a discussion. Everyone should be heard. We have only one Kenya. No annex. pic.twitter.com/HZqTWwxQA0
— Sakaja Arthur Johnson (@SakajaJohnson) March 12, 2023
Hours later, a media outlet reported that Governor Sakaja called for a handshake between President Ruto and the opposition which irked the governor.
In a quick rebuttal, the governor said that he instead appealed to President Ruto to engage the opposition in order to avert the nationwide mass action.
“Not accurate. I have not asked for a handshake but a discussion. Everyone should be heard. We have only one Kenya. No annex,” he wrote on Twitter.
This comes amid unswerving pronouncements from Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and the president himself that there is no possibility of a handshake between the government and the opposition.
DP Gachagua has argued that a handshake agreement will wreck the nation similar to the March 2018 ‘handshake’ between opposition leader Raila Odinga and former president Uhuru Kenyatta.
“He (Raila) can stick to the opposition. Let the old man hear it from me, here on the slopes of Mount Kenya, there will be no handshake. The only handshake President Ruto is interested in is with hustlers for the Hustler Fund,” said Gachagua at a past public address.
