The National Dialogue Committee report’s refusal to have the signature of former Defence CS Eugene Wamalwa appended has been clarified.
Wamalwa who was one of the people representing the Opposition side Azimio in the talks on Sunday said that he will also not accept any allowances that will come as a result of taking part in the talks.
Further, the head of the DAP-K party said that he did not think they adequately addressed the cost of living, which is the subject that Kenyans are most concerned about.
This is the case even though Nadco evaluated suggestions from Kenyans and other professional associations throughout three months of sittings.
“I told the Kenyans at Tingolo Catholic Church that I did not and will not sign the NADCO report, and I have not and will not accept any seating allowance for the same because I feel we did not adequately address the single most important issue that affects Kenyans, which is the cost of living,” Wamalwa stated.
He made these statements a few hours after the Committee on Saturday made public its final report.
On the several topics brought up by people on opposing sides of the political spectrum, the team offered several suggestions.
When releasing the final report of its discussions, the committee did acknowledge that it was unable to reach a consensus on the issue of cost of living.
Both sides offered suggestions on important topics that were covered in the report, and they revealed that they were unable to reach a consensus on Azimio’s main concerns including taxes, the Finance Act, and the Housing Levy.
The Azimio leader said that “the committee was unable to reach a consensus on several other proposals on the matter of the cost of living, including the reduction of fuel VAT from 16 per cent to 8 per cent and the scrapping of the housing levy, the twin issues in the Finance Act, 2023.”
Kalonzo Musyoka of the Azimio Coalition and Kimani Ichung’wah of the Kenya Kwanza Coalition, who are co-chairs of NADCO, signed the report.