Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has dismissed claims that he has urged President Willian Ruto to engage the opposition in a handshake.

This follows after Governor on Sunday emphasized the need to engage all leaders into discussions, noting that the Kenya Kwanza administration discourages the politics of exclusion.

“No one wants a handshake or nusu mkate. But you must acknowledge all leaders, you must be able to hear what are the legitimate concerns,” he said speaking after a church service at St. Joseph Mukasa in Nairobi.

Sakaja added the country is bigger than any one person and everyone must be made to feel as Kenyan as the other person.

Hours later, a media outlet reported that Governor Sakaja called for a handshake between President Ruto and the opposition which irked the governor.

In a quick rebuttal, the governor said that he instead appealed to President Ruto to engage the opposition in order to avert the nationwide mass action.

“Not accurate. I have not asked for a handshake but a discussion. Everyone should be heard. We have only one Kenya. No annex,” he wrote on Twitter.

This comes amid unswerving pronouncements from Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and the president himself that there is no possibility of a handshake between the government and opposition.

DP Gachagua has argued that a handshake agreement will wreck the nation similar to the March 2018 ‘handshake’ between opposition leader Raila Odinga and former president Uhuru Kenyatta.

By Jane Kibathi.