Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has said the government's push to hold bipartisan talks within the confines of Parliament is misguided.
Sifuna said such utterances are indicative of red flags associated with the government owing to its failure to listen to grievances presented by the Azimio coalition.
“We are looking for goodwill, we are looking for intention, you must demonstrate seriousness. We have said there are red flags for instance when you insist on purely parliamentary process and we have described to you that a parliamentary process straight jackets the talks,” Sifuna said on Citizen TVon Thursday.
“It will not be able to happen in the manner in which we expect it to happen, then you’re insisting there will be no talks outside parliament it is a red flag for us.”
He stated that the Kenya Kwanza government needs to look at the items raised for the talks, especially on matters to do with maintaining fidelity to political parties.
“You should respect multiparty democracy even in constituting your team, taking a member of our team and putting him on your team is adding insult to injury. That is the demonstration of lack of goodwill that is leading us to say maybe these guys were not serious from the beginning,” he said.
The senator added that people and civil groups should stop asking the Azimio coalition to dictate what will be discussed highlighting that the faction is the one that raised the issues.
“We are the ones with the grievance, there is a chronology of events that led us to this particular point. These guys had no issues, they were okay. We are the ones who brought up these issues,” he said.
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale has disregarded Azimio leader Raila Odinga’s calls to have the talks expanded out of Parliament.
Khalwale said it was absurd to have teams drawn outside Parliament for the talks.
He said Raila should have confidence in his team and choose representatives for the talks.
"To insist that he wants the process to take place outside Parliament, it is assuming that he doesn't have competent people within his team," he said.
