Mudavadi urges national dialogue to prevent escalating conflict
By Nancy Marende, July 14, 2025Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi has urged Kenyans to embrace dialogue as the only rational and sustainable way to resolve national issues and avoid conflict.
Speaking at a televised interview at a local TV station on Sunday night, July 13, 2025, Mudavadi warned that the failure to communicate effectively would only escalate tensions and lead to confrontation.
“The solution is this: if we don’t talk to each other, we will graduate to talking at each other, and then graduate to fighting with each other. So the logical thing is to have dialogue,” he said.
Mudavadi stressed that dialogue is the necessary step toward national unity and challenged leaders and citizens to focus on finding consensus instead of resorting to protests or confrontational tactics.
“It is always important that we resolve our issues through dialogue. Let us debate on what should be the form and the format of dialogues. The alternative is painful, losing life and making skirmishes that we do not want. Let us be rational people and dialogue,” he added.
He acknowledged that Kenya is facing pressure from various fronts, especially economic challenges and rising political dissent, but insisted that open conversations remain the best route forward.
“No matter what kind of pressure you have, it is always important to have a conversation in order to have a way forward.”
Raila Odinga
This comes days after Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga called for an urgent national dialogue to address Kenya’s socio-political and economic crisis that has seen thousands troop to the streets in protests over recent months.
Speaking at a press briefing on July 7, 2025, the ODM leader proposed the establishment of what he called a national conclave to chart a new path for the country through collective civic engagement and reform.
“The most important struggle is for good governance and economic opportunities. Do we embrace chaos or a coming together of minds and a country? As a living architect of the events leading to Saba Saba, I choose a coming together of minds and a country in the interests of the country,” he said.
At the centre of his proposal is a broad-based, intergenerational ‘national conclave’ that would gather voices from across the political, generational, and regional spectrum.
This forum must be tasked with crafting “irreducible reforms and changes necessary to take the country forward,” said Odinga, and should culminate in a referendum to give citizens the final say.
He outlined four key pillars for the proposed civic dialogue: deliberation through the conclave; police reforms; transparency and a renewed fight against corruption; and youth empowerment and economic inclusion.
“You know a rogue police force that shoots people with impunity; this is a force that we inherited from the colonialists,” Odinga told reporters, calling for urgent reforms to build public trust in security agencies amid recent cases of police brutality during the youth-led protests.
The conclave, he added, should be led by “the most serious and sober minds in our nation.”