Raila Odinga leaves Kenyan opposition reeling with decision to bury the hatchet
Nairobi — Kenya’s main opposition alliance has been cast into disarray after its leader, Raila Odinga, broke ranks and agreed to a truce with President Uhuru Kenyatta following a seven-month standoff over disputed elections. Odinga said on March 9 that he was abandoning a defiance campaign aimed at toppling Kenyatta and would instead work with the president on fostering national unity — an announcement that caught the other three main leaders of his National Super Alliance (Nasa) by surprise. The ructions in the opposition will help Kenyatta consolidate power during his second and final term, and are a boon for the ruling Jubilee Party as it prepares for the next elections in 2022. "Nasa is now dead and its epitaph written", thanks to Odinga’s decision to strike his own deal, said Peter Kagwanja, CEO of the Africa Policy Institute, based in the capital, Nairobi. "The ideological discordance is clear and its leaders have fallen apart." The truce may be good news for East Africa’s lar...
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