Resign from Azimio talks team, Makau Mutua tells Kioni
Azimio spokesperson Makau Mutua has asked embattled Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni to resign as head of the Azimio technical team in the ongoing bipartisan talks with the Kenya Kwanza side.
In a statement on Saturday, Mutua said Kioni has no faith in the dialogue whose aim is to resolve electoral issues that emerged after the 2022 presidential elections.
“My good friend Hon Kioni should with immediate effect resign as head of the Azimio technical team at the Bomas talks. He’s repeatedly said the talks are a ‘waste of time’. He must resign unless he’s a hypocrite. How can one lead a team in talks he doesn’t believe in?” Makau said.
Kioni is part of the talks committee that is ongoing at the Bomas of Kenya to address issues between Kenya Kwanza and the Azimio coalition.
He is said to have claimed the talks were going nowhere and that he would have bowed out had he been in Azimio leader Raila Odinga’s position.
On Thursday, he differed bitterly with EALA MP and UDA vice chairman Hassan Omar after he insisted that the cost of living should be part of the agenda of the talks at Bomas of Kenya.
ALSO READ: CS Wahome speaks after Athi Water CEO Thuita resigns
On Friday, Kioni said during a talk show on Spice FM that high taxes, the cost of fuel and the Finance Bill is still unresolved yet they are not part of the talks agenda.
“I said that I wouldn’t want to sit in a situation where I feel like we are conning Kenyans. There are those who thought that shouldn’t have been said but I am still saying it. What took us to Bomas and why people were killed was the cost of living. That’s why people were demonstrating,” he said.
These sentiments did not sit well with Omar on Thursday resulting in a war of words with the former Ndaragwa MP and they almost came to blows.
Kioni is said to have stormed out of the meeting after the altercation.
UDA Secretary General Cleophas Malalah on Friday took issue with Kioni over the drama saying there is no place for fist fights at the talks.
“If you have ideas, challenge us with ideas intellectually, give us your ideologies. You cannot be in a respectable meeting like that and you want to engage the chairman of the ruling party in a fistfight,” he said.
Resign from Azimio talks team, Makau Mutua tells Kioni
