President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga are headed to the United States to share their experiences about the \u201chandshake\u201d.<\/p>\n
Raila left last evening following an invitation to a sideline event during the 2020 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, US.His spokesman Dennis Onyango confirmed that he departed for the US.President Kenyatta is expected to leave today for the event, among other engagements in Washington.<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s spokesperson Kanze Dena did not respond to inquiries about the Head of State\u2019s travel. Foreign trips for the president have in recent months been kept low profile prior to departure.But security officials aware of the plans confirmed the president will depart today.<\/p>\n
President Kenyatta and the ODM leader will be having the first such talks on the international stage to extol the agreement that united their feuding political camps, and which has led to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) that is expected to yield constitutional reforms.<\/p>\n
The two leaders, according to reports, have been invited to a connected event referred to as the International Lunch, slated for February 5 and 6 and they are expected\u00a0to talk about the \u201chandshake\u201d and the BBI.<\/p>\n
In the invite, US Congress National Breakfast Co-chairs John Moolenaar and Thomas Suozzi asked Kenyatta and Raila to be the joint keynote speakers for the lunch.\u201cAs the keynote speakers for the lunch, we would like to ask you to share your personal journey of faith and reconciliation,\u201d the invite reads.<\/p>\n
Invite-only<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the American Guest House, the event is hosted by members of the United States Congress and is an invite-only\u00a0affair attended by elite individuals in politics, society, and business.\u00a0\u201cThe prestigious two-day event is more than just breakfast. It includes a day full of meetings and forums punctuated by lunch and dinner. Over 100 countries are represented among the 3,500 attendees,\u201d the hotel\u2019s website reads.Odinga had two weeks ago confirmed the invitation and said they would both attend.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will go and talk about the handshake. The handshake is a good example and unique and it\u2019s only Kenya that has done such a thing globally,\u201d he said.The president is banking on the BBI among his legacy programmes to deliver reforms to secure the nation\u2019s stability and end the cycle of violence witnessed after every election.On the day of the launch of the BBI report in Nairobi last November, the president explained the BBI report was meant to address some of the challenges facing the country such as unemployment, electoral violence, poverty and corruption.<\/p>\n Here to stay<\/strong><\/p>\n The president has repeated that the BBI is here to stay and told off critics.He said the BBI process is not against anyone politician and cautioned the political class against divisive politics, saying thirst for power should never be allowed to override national interests.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not about us as leaders; it is about the 47 million Kenyan patriots. Let us read it and we can come back here at a time around early next year,\u201d he said.The report by the Presidential task force headed by Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji recommends that the president nominates a prime minister from the largest party or coalition in parliament who will be in charge of the daily running of government.Last December, the US Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter said his country would support the implementation of the report to ensure unity before the 2022 General Election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga are headed to the United States to share their experiences about the \u201chandshake\u201d. Raila left last evening following an invitation to a sideline event during the 2020 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, US.His spokesman Dennis Onyango confirmed that he departed for the US.President Kenyatta is expected to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[1103,1102,242],"class_list":["post-1905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-2022-general-election","tag-dennis-onyango","tag-raila-odinga"],"yoast_head":"\n