{"id":419234,"date":"2023-07-30T09:22:19","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T06:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/?p=419234"},"modified":"2023-07-30T09:22:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T06:22:19","slug":"kenya-government-and-opposition-agree-to-talks-after-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/kenya-government-and-opposition-agree-to-talks-after-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya government and opposition agree to talks after protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nairobi, (SONNA) &#8211; Kenya\u2019s government and opposition have agreed to form a joint committee which aims to resolve their differences, senior politicians from both sides said, after a series of opposition protests\u00a0over the cost of living and\u00a0tax increases.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition coalition Azimio la Umoja (Declaration of Unity) and the government coalition led by President William Ruto\u2019s Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) issued separate statements on Saturday confirming the talks.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition leader Raila Odinga had called for a number of protests earlier this month, causing widespread disruption and in some cases violent confrontations with police in which more than two dozen people were killed and many others injured.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDetermined to resolve our differences amicably for the benefit of all our people, we have therefore agreed with Kenya Kwanza to establish a committee,\u201d Azimio said, referring to the governing party alliance.<\/p>\n<p>A joint statement by both parties said the committee would be comprised of four members of parliament, four members from outside parliament, and the majority and minority leaders from the national assembly.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides agreed that opposition to a controversial financial bill signed into law in June \u201cshould be decided in court\u201d where it is being challenged. On Friday, an appeals court lifted a suspension placed on a law that would double the value-added tax on fuel and introduce a new housing levy.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2293409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2293409\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-2293409\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/33PY7RE-highres-1690648532.jpg?w=770&amp;resize=770%2C576&amp;quality=80\" alt=\"Combination of file photos of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odingya and President William Ruto\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2293409\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Raila Odinga (L), the leader of the Kenyan opposition coalition \u0093 Azimio la Umoja \u0094, has said the government of Kenya\u2019s President William Ruto (R) is illegitimate [AFP]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The law raises taxes and was seized upon by Odinga during the protests.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kimani Ichung\u2019wah, Kenya Kwanza\u2019s parliamentary majority leader, the talks would also look at the makeup of Kenya\u2019s election commission and the establishment of an office for Odinga, who has lost five elections and alleged cheating in many of them.<\/p>\n<p>Odinga, who has claimed last year\u2019s presidential election was \u201cstolen\u201d from him and said Ruto\u2019s government is illegitimate, had previously ruled out talks without a third-party mediator.<\/p>\n<p>But his Azimio coalition said \u201cfacilitation\u201d by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo had resulted in an agreement to form a 10-member committee of equal representation to iron out their differences.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Source: Al Jazeera<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nairobi, (SONNA) &#8211; Kenya\u2019s government and opposition have agreed to form a joint committee which aims to resolve their differences, senior politicians from both sides said, after a series of opposition protests\u00a0over the cost of living and\u00a0tax increases. Opposition coalition Azimio la Umoja (Declaration of Unity) and the government coalition led by President William Ruto\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":419235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-419234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419236,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419234\/revisions\/419236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}