President William Ruto on Monday surprised many by orchestrating what can be termed as a handshake with opposition Jubilee Party MPs during a meeting at State House Nairobi.
Ruto revealed that he had met and reached an agreement with former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee MPs led by EALA MP Kanini Kega and Nominated MP Sabina Chege.
His meeting with the leaders from Jubilee, which is part of the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition party led by Raila Odinga, was to seek their support for his development agenda.
“We must build a bigger and better team that will work together to effectively prosecute the agenda of the people of Kenya,” said Ruto in a post shared on his social media pages on Monday after the meeting.
He added, “We cannot move our country forward by leaving others behind.”
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The meeting attended by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua also included Jubilee MPs Irene Njoki (Bahati), David Kiaraho (Ol Kalou), Zachary Kwenya (Kinangop) and Amos Mwago (Starehe).
Also present were Mark Mwenje (Embakasi West), Shadrack Mwiti (South Imenti), Daniel Karitho (Igembe Central), Stanley Muthama (Lamu West) as well as Joseph Githuku (Lamu).
The meeting came hours before Raila is set to release a “bombshell” on alleged rigging of the August 9, 2022 general election during a political rally at Kamkunji grounds in Nairobi and it is widely seen as a move by the Head of State to tame the moves by the ODM boss.
Raila, who returns from South Africa on Monday, pledged to back his claims he won with 8.1 million votes but his win was illegally awarded to Ruto who allegedly got 5.9 million votes.
The meeting also comes months after the President Ruto ruled out forging any "handshake" or working relationship with Raila's Azimio La Umoja leaders and he had instead challenged them to play their role as the opposition effectively to keep his government in check.
