The fourth day of agitation and demonstrations against the country's rising cost of living and for fair electoral justice was suspended today by the Kenyan ruling opposition.
Minority leader Raila Odinga, who earlier in the week had lashed out both at institutions, refusing any approach to discuss the issues he raised with the opposition, and at U.S. diplomacy, which, in the voice of U.S. Ambassador to Nairobi Meg Whitman called last August's elections "the freest and most transparent ever seen in this country," responded to President William Ruto's call from State House, who from live TV invited his opponent and his allies to a confrontation.
Ruto in return called on Odinga not to take to the streets this Monday, as these protests are costing the country a great deal of money and so far the only result achieved is to have caused thousands of people to lose three days of work, cut receipts to hundreds of businesses, caused damage to public and private facilities in Nairobi, Kisumu and two other towns in the Lake Victoria region, and indirectly caused the death of two students and a police officer, as well as the injury of 70 other people.
The protests have also caused difficulties in the international arena for Ruto himself and his administration, which is facing the daunting task in recent weeks of selling Kenya to foreign investors and reassuring them about the unrest that has brought business activities to a near standstill.
In the past ten days, Ruto has had three major meetings with investors: in Berlin, Germany, in Brussels, and at the just-concluded American Chamber of Commerce Business Summit held in Nairobi-where he once again had to reassure investors that the country was safe for business. On Thursday, at the close of the summit with U.S. investors, politicians and diplomats, Ruto made opening statements about easing the taxation system to attract multinationals, particularly in the ICT sector. Statements that were somewhat marred by anti-government slogans led by coalition leader Azimio La Umoja who, for some reason, chose to lead his brigade of protesters along Mombasa Road, a few kilometers from where the summit was taking place.
We will see today what turn the debates and confrontations will take, with a promise to be kept by the president to form a bilateral parliamentary committee to reconstitute the electoral commission, another opposition priority.
It will also be interesting to learn about Odinga's ideas for sinking inflation, rehabilitating the national debt in a short period of time, and lifting the shilling against the dollar. Right now not only he but not even Merlin the Wizard would be able to do that, just as William Ruto would have no reason to do the opposite. It would take time and patience, all the more so in the country of the "pole pole," unless there are vested interests overriding the economy and the increasingly precarious condition of millions of people.