President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition chief Raila Odinga have finally struck a surprising reconciliatory tone after eight months of intense political heat. In what baffled friend and foe, the two rivals undertook to work together, starting with rallying Kenyans behind shared national objectives. The main aim, they said, is to implement a grand plan to heal the nation. Although yesterday’s Harambee House meeting was least expected, its news reverberated across the country, with a renewed sense of hope and optimism setting in for the first time since the tense 2017 polls. The two leaders, who capped their talks with a firm handshake in full glare of cameras, pledged to repair the delicate ethnic relations that have set Kenya on the path to ruin. In all fairness, yesterday’s engagement was a step in the right direction. Those who look at it as win for Uhuru and a loss for Raila and vice versa are, to say the least, mistaken. The truth of the matter is that the new-found unity is a sure win for Kenya.
We believe national conciliation, not confrontation, is key to ending disunity. It doesn’t bode well for democracy to live in a country where half the population feels left out in every affair of state. During the many months of the Jubilee-NASA political melodrama, the country lost investor confidence. The tourism industry suffered while our image took a beating, not to mention the lives lost in street protests. Baby Pendo’s story is still fresh in Kenyans’ minds.
But as the President rightly put it, elections come and go but Kenya will remain. An election shouldn’t be a means to national ruin. We can’t trade unity for anything else. By heeding calls for dialogue, albeit late, Uhuru and Raila have reminisced the wisdom of former Cabinet minister George Saitoti who said there comes a time when the interest of the country is greater than that of individuals.
The President and Opposition chief deserve every support to take the country forward. It can never be late to get it right.
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