Members of Parliament from the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) are set to converge for a high-level meeting on Monday, August 18, President William Ruto has now revealed.
Ruto, while speaking on Thursday, August 14, in Migori, disclosed the meeting would be focused on discussing the broad-based partnership between Ruto’s UDA and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ODM parties.
“We (ODM and Kenya Kwanza) agreed to work together to create a country that is for every Kenyan and come up with policies that bring in more income to our nation," he noted.
“We have agreed that on Monday (August 18), we are going to have a broad-based government meeting between lawmakers from ODM and their counterparts from Kenya Kwanza to agree on how we are going to create strong mechanisms and unite the country to push it forward,” Ruto disclosed.
The meeting is set to follow up on the formation of a five-member technical committee tasked with overseeing the implementation of the 10-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between UDA and ODM in March this year.
In July, ODM, led by Secretary General Edwin Sifuna, had announced that the committee’s formation was the missing link in the implementation of the ten-point agenda.
The Committee would address the lack of full implementation of the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) report, the protection of young Kenyans, and adherence to the right to peaceful assembly, critical issues raised by ODM in the MoU.
"To expedite the implementation of the ten-point agenda in the MoU, ODM will constitute a technical team to work with our UDA counterpart to assist with the implementation of the agreement," Sifuna said.
A week later, Ruto and Raila appointed the members of the committee, amongst them political analyst and commentator Gabriel Oguda.
In a statement on Wednesday, August 6, President Ruto confirmed that Oguda and four other individuals would be tasked with overseeing the implementation of the 10-Point agenda agreed upon by the two leaders.
The committee was to be chaired by former nominated Senator Agnes Zani, Fatuma Ibrahim, with Kevin Kiarie and political analyst Javas Bigambo also forming part of the five-member team.
Besides the five-member committee, a joint secretariat, which will be co-led by Executive Secretaries from UDA and ODM, has also been established to provide technical and operational support to the committee.
The committee is expected to submit bimonthly progress reports to President Ruto and Raila Odinga, with quarterly briefings scheduled for the joint Kenya Kwanza-ODM Parliamentary Group.
The committee's work was to culminate in one final report, which is expected to be released publicly on March 7, 2026, on the first anniversary of the signing of the MoU between Ruto and Raila.
