With the signing of a ten-point memorandum of understanding between Kenyan President William Ruto and opposition leader Raila Odinga, the governing coalition United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) have reached an agreement to address the crisis following the failure to pass the budget law last June, which triggered anti-government protests by young people, with deaths, injuries and a wave of kidnappings for which the country's human rights organisations have pointed the finger at the police.
Ruto and Odinga, with a meeting between the two sides at the Kenyatta International Convention Center in Nairobi, have laid the foundations for a series of reforms that will have to redesign Kenya's economic and social path, without (according to Odinga himself) affecting the political one in view of the upcoming elections in 2027.
According to the national media, part of this agreement would involve the inclusion of other elements of the ODM within the current government led by Ruto, who last August had already appointed four ministers from the opposition benches and recently also appointed two former members of the previous Kenyatta government (of which he was the deputy, but who then had disagreements, with Kenyatta supporting Odinga during the election campaign).
‘A truly national and inclusive pact’, said President Ruto, who praised the agreement during the press conference, defining it as a commitment to national unity and a bipartisan approach to the continued governability of the country.
Public opinion is divided, between those who gathered in Nairobi under the KICC to applaud the agreement, hoping that the divisions blocking Kenya's development will be overcome, and protests in Odinga's strongholds, in Kisumu and in the north-western regions of the country.