President William Ruto will not be attending the Global Peace Leadership Conference scheduled for this week in Nairobi, according to the event’s organizers.
The summit, planned from Tuesday, June 25 to Thursday, June 27, aimed to gather delegates from around the world to “explore and discuss ways to promote peace, development, and cooperation”.
President Ruto had been scheduled to deliver a keynote address on Wednesday.
However, organizers announced in the morning that the opening ceremony had been canceled due to “the events over the last two days in Kenya, the loss of lives, and the casualties of the protests at Parliament on June 25.”
They stated that Ruto would no longer be attending the conference.
“We mourn those who have died, pray for a full recovery for those who were injured, and hope for healing for this nation so that it can find a way forward towards a future that benefits all its people,” read the statement.
The Global Peace Leadership Conference is organized by the Global Peace Foundation, the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya, the Chandaria Foundation, and the Kenyan government.
According to its website, the conference aims to promote an “African Renaissance that draws on Africa’s unique heritage and the strength of its spirituality and traditional values,” empower African leadership, strengthen intracontinental partnerships, and cultivate “ethical global citizenship.”
The conference is co-chaired by former Zanzibar President Amani Karume, the Global Peace Foundation’s International President James Flynn, Kenyan industrialist Manu Chandaria, and Willybard Lagho, chair of the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya.
Tuesday saw day-long nationwide demonstrations led by the youth protesting President Ruto’s government’s unpopular Finance Bill 2024, which seeks to introduce more taxes.
The demonstrations culminated in violent scenes as crowds broke through police lines and breached Parliament buildings in Nairobi after legislators passed the bill, which now awaits presidential assent.
