Why Uhuru’s State of the Nation address today will standout from previous years

President Uhuru Kenyatta will for the first time in three years be addressing a calmer and seemingly united people in his State of the Nation speech at Parliament building on Wednesday afternoon.

Unlike in the last the three years, Opposition leaders are not protesting against the President and his Jubilee Government.

The ODM lawmakers are expected to be in the August House with their Jubilee colleagues and others to give audience to the Head of State as he addresses a joint sitting of the Senate and the National Assembly.

Skipped event

This is unlike 2017 when the Opposition leaders deliberately snubbed the event noting that Mr Kenyatta had no achievements to talk about.

"There is nothing we can be told because we know nothing has been achieved by the Jubilee regime. You cannot talk about achievements when you have doctors and lecturers on strike.

"Other civil servants are threatening to go on strike. We have corruption in every corner of the country," former Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama said.

The ODM legislators instead held a political rally in Kibera.

The 2017 State of the Nation address was held in September after the Supreme Court nullified Mr Kenyatta’s re-election during the August 8 General Election. The event also marked the opening of the 12th Parliament.

Chaotic address

At the same time in 2016, the President was badly humiliated by ODM lawmakers who went into a frenzy after National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi invited him (Kenyatta) to the podium to address the Nation.

The leaders disrupted the Head of State by blowing whistles, chanting and creating a chaotic scene.

This led to some of them being ejected out of the chambers. Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi who was among the lawmakers faced disciplinary action for shouting down the President.

In 2015, President Kenyatta used the State of the Nation address to announce a bold new purge on corruption, which he started off by suspending five Cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries and the Head of the Civil Service.

Development course

Today’s State of the Nation has no much political noise around it as Kenyans are focused on listening to the development course the President is charting for the country.

This has been attributed to the recent handshake between Mr Kenyatta and Odinga.

The now-famous handshake has seen even Kenyatta’s fiercest critic, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino support the State of the Nation address.

"I think this idea of the handshake is uniting Kenya and Kenyans should support it," Owino said outside in Parliament awaiting Mr Kenyatta State of the Nation address.

The President is legally required to make the address at least once a year.