Former Governor James Nyoro urges Kenya Kwanza, Azimio to uphold respect in bipartisan talks

During a discussion on Citizen TV, the ex-governor said that the country cannot afford to lose more lives while at the same time experiencing economic hardship.

“There are principles of bipartisan talks and one of the principles is mutual respect and mutual regard, that you enter the table of discussion with respect,” Nyoro said.

“I think what we need to expect from the participants of these talks is that mutual respect, that you may probably have other issues outside there but the issues at hand are more important than your own individual differences.”

Nyoro argued that Kenya has made a stride to achieve peace hence urged the two divergent teams to retreat and shake hands to come up with comprehensible solutions to solve country’s problems.

“We have seen where we have come from, we have seen people losing their lives, we have seen the economy being battered, we cannot go back there, we don’t have the luxury of time to go back there,” he said.

“I would really urge the parties, first of all, to retreat…those people should just go at the centre forward and shake hands and respect one another put in the agenda and agree on principles and disagree on principles and move forward,” he added.

He went further to say that Kenyans have expectations from the bipartisan talks and that the chosen representatives should come forth with no strings attached, to deliberate on significant issues.

“Our expectation is that they would come with no strings attached, they would have the country at heart, and probably come up with long-term solutions. When these people sit they would be no personal issues there would be no push and pull and they would put the country at the centre,” Nyoro said.

Nyoro further termed electoral management as a key issue which should be conclusively interrogated in the bipartisan talks to avoid conflicts after every election.

The bipartisan talks commenced on Wednesday last week with National Assembly majority leader Kimani Ichungwa and Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka leading the two coalitions in the talks.