Kenyan Rivals Make a Deal

About 1,500 people have died in Kenya in post-election violence over the last two months. It appears there won’t be very many more, perhaps even no more, now that the two rival politicians have signed a power-sharing agreement. Kenya may never get back its reputation as an island of stability in the region, but it might be able to move forward without sliding into the kind of civil strife that many of its neighbors suffer.

The trouble all began when Kenya's electoral commission declared President Mwai Kibaki the winner of the recent presidential election. However, the EU observers monitoring the vote said there was massive fraud. For example, in one area, voter turnout reached 115%. Apparently, the people there agree with the old adage, “vote early, vote often.”

Raila Odinga, the opposition candidate, refused to accept the result, and ethnic violence ensued. Some 400,000 Kenyans left their homes to avoid joining the 1,500 dead. Talks between the two candidates stalled, and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan came to mediate. Yesterday, he managed to get Messrs. Kibaki and Odinga to sign what was more a peace treaty than a political coalition agreement.

Under the terms of the deal, Kenya will now have a prime minister (Mr. Odinga) as well as a president (Mr. Kibaki). The PM will have the “authority to co-ordinate and supervise the execution of government functions.” There will be two deputy prime ministers, and cabinet ministries will be apportioned according to seats won in parliament. And this whole thing needs to be approved by the 222 member parliament.

Good news, but not great news is how some Kenyans viewed the story. The Times, London’s, quoted Robert Mwaniki, a 26-year-old salesman for a cable TV company in Nairobi, as saying, “Once they sign this agreement, everything will be OK for them, but not for us. Before we get that confidence back of living together as different tribes, it may take time. We have no respect for each other anymore. All you care about is you.” Sadly, for Mr. Mwaniki, it will be a long time before Kenya gets its reputation back.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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