President Uhuru Kenyatta has spoken of how he and Opposition leader Raila Odinga defied hardliners to open negotiations after the disputed presidential vote. He recalled a tense six-hour face-to-face meeting leading up to their truce.<\/p>\n
The president and the former Prime Minister were on Wednesday the keynote speakers at a luncheon organised to mark this year\u2019s US National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC.Uhuru narrated the tense and long process leading to the handshake with Mr Odinga, saying they went against the hard-line positions held by their supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sat in a room and it took almost six hours for us to even begin talking anything… It was what you can call excruciating silence because nobody wanted to be the first to say anything,\u201d President Kenyatta said.<\/p>\n
The president recounted the destabilising impact post-election conflicts have had on the country\u2019s growth over the last 30 years, saying the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) is aimed at finding a homegrown solution to the divisive nature of Kenyan politics.He said that divisive politics and the resultant ethnic tensions negatively affect the country\u2019s development: \u201cOnce the election comes, everything stops… business stops one year before an election and restarts one year after an election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Economic stability<\/strong><\/p>\n He said it is impossible to bring prosperity and long-term economic stability required for a nation to develop and grow without stable peace.\u201cEverybody used to plan their businesses around the election cycle,\u201d President Kenyatta told the international audience made up mostly of senior American officials.<\/p>\n Uhuru, who retraced Kenya\u2019s history of election-related ethnic conflicts since the adoption of multiparty democracy in the early 90s, said his coming together with his main political challenger Raila Odinga was motivated by the realisation that the disruption of the economy by electoral tensions every so often was not sustainable.<\/p>\n The president expressed satisfaction that millions of Kenyans have joined and are participating in the BBI process, saying democracy cannot thrive in an environment of political uncertainty.\u201cWe shook hands and embraced and that one single moment changed the whole country.<\/p>\n Because nobody would ever have imagined that we would shake hands and embrace,\u201d the president said.He continued: \u201cSince then, we have walked as brothers, we have brought onboard (Kenyans) and said that this process that we\u2019ve started is not a political process but rather a process that seeks to entrench our democracy.<\/p>\n \u201dUhuru said that through the BBI, Kenya had begun the process of reconciliation and national healing, adding that his greatest desire is to leave a peaceful and united country.<\/p>\n Greatest gift<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe greatest gift that me and my brother (Raila) can ever leave the people of Kenya is the gift of peace, love and unity of all our people. And that\u2019s the mission that we are on,\u201d he said.Raila said he shares the president\u2019s determination and commitment to achieve national cohesion through the BBI process by building trust and unity among Kenyans.<\/p>\n The opposition leader said BBI is a historic journey to a united and stable Kenya, adding that the process will help address several challenges facing the country, including youth unemployment, corruption and negative ethnicity.\u201cWe discovered that there were no national ethos.<\/p>\n We talked about shared prosperity or disparity in terms of regional development, ethnicity as a factor that divides our people. We talked about issues of corruption as a cancer in our society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n President Uhuru was introduced to the distinguished audience by Senator Christopher Coons, Chairman of the Subcommittee on African Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Uhuru Kenyatta has spoken of how he and Opposition leader Raila Odinga defied hardliners to open negotiations after the disputed presidential vote. He recalled a tense six-hour face-to-face meeting leading up to their truce. The president and the former Prime Minister were on Wednesday the keynote speakers at a luncheon organised to mark this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,12],"tags":[235,495,362,1207],"class_list":["post-2125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-bbi","tag-opposition-leader-raila-odinga","tag-president-uhuru-kenyatta","tag-us-national-prayer-breakfast"],"yoast_head":"\n