Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga announced a unity deal just hours before US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s arrival, promising to end the “explosive stalemate” following the contested October 2017 election.
According to insiders in both the president’s Jubilee Party and the opposition National Super Alliance, the two leaders had been holding discussions for some time, but the impending arrival of Mr Tillerson could have put pressure on them to make a public announcement, committing to work together to unite Kenyans.
Mr Tillerson’s office is said to have reached out to President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga through telephone calls, but details of the conversations were not available.
The US Secretary of State, on arrival, praised the two leaders for pledging to work together, saying the announcement showed great leadership.
The two leaders later issued a statement titled “Building bridges to a new Kenya nation” in which they announced the rollout of a programme that will implement their shared objectives of addressing ethnic antagonism and competition, lack of national ethos, inclusivity, devolution, safety and security and corruption. They also pledged to “stand together” to pursue the country’s shared prosperity agenda and asked Kenyans and leaders to embrace their rights and responsibilities.
The statement, as well as their public address made no reference to power relations, and both signed the statement as H.E (his excellency). 