Discussion: Democratic Kenya and her future
- Posted on Thursday 3 January 2008 - 13:59AfricaNews, photo: Evans WafulaAfter days of turmoil in Kenya, voices have arisen both from inside and outside the African continent to call not only for calm but also for dialogue among the two main candidates who are both claiming victory.
While the toll keeps rising, the good news came in today that the ODM was finally ready for discussion. Names of mediators have even been put forward including two Ghanaians – former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and president John Kufuor - ; and former Sierra Leonean president Ahmad Tejan Kabba. In the meantime, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been talking to the opposed sides in an effort to restore calm.
Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has contested the victory of rival president Mwai Kibaki, who was seeking a second term in office. The counting process was unanimously said to have been marred by irregularities, which even some African observers called ‘incompetence’.
The Kenyan situation poses serious problems that can serve as a precedent on the continent: are polls still the only legitimate way to get to power? Do peace and order still matter when polls are rigged?
Africanews.com, the largest user-generated platform, is also interested in knowing what you would suggest to the mediation team in its salutary mission of bringing two political foes to one table and settle their electoral feuds. Please send your opinion
-See videos taken by mobile phone by our reporters related to the current situation in Kenya.
- view exclusive pictures of a ravaged Kisumu.
Keywords: kenya_election
Reactions
- Posted on Thursday 03 January 2008 14:26Now that the principle of discussion and negotiation is being put forward as the only way out of the Kenyan crisis, it is time to suggest to the future mediation team some solutions that could illuminate them.
I am strongly convinced that Kibaki hurriedly took his oath to put everybody, including Odinda and the international community, in front of an accomplished fact, which automatically puts him in the position of control. This means that the mediation team will not have to suggest his stepping down, because it would not work at all.
On the other hand, Odinga is strong-headedly convinced that he is the winner, and perhaps he is right, given the fact that the last vote-counting hours were rather like poll-filling time for Kibaki, who suddenly made up the over-1 million vote gap and added some more hundreds of thousands.
The above suggests that the two former allies, who by the way, belong to two big ethnic groups, need satisfaction, and this is how they can get it. Let them have a glance at the transition to democracy in Burundi. After years of unrest, the Tutsi and the Hutu decided to open a new era of democracy, preceded by a successful transition. In that period, the incumbent Tutsi president ruled for two years with a Hutu vice president, and then a Hutu ruled two years with a Tutsi vice president, and the whole process ended with transparent elections.
The Burundi model can inspire Kenya. The only lesson from the December election is that there are two caimans – Kibaki and Odinga - in one pool. The election belongs now to the past and another one should be planned after the two half terms. If this Burundi model was adopted, there is no reason for either side to reject it as power would be equally shared pending the next elections.Et in terra pax hominubus... - Posted on Thursday 03 January 2008 15:09AllAfrica reports that also Museveni (Uganda) and Kikwete (Tanzania) are seeking to solve the crisis.
- Posted on Friday 04 January 2008 10:48Africa is up in flames again as Kenya burns. The two political heavyweights in Kenya Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki have decided to take the country to the dogs.
They have been making public nuisances of themselves in a political contest that has now turned tribal.
They are leveling accusations and counter accusations of vote rigging against each other. What a palaver!
Now they are at each other’s throat over the presidency. Raila wants Kibaki to step down over accusations that he stole the victory and declared himself President without the people's mandate.
It seems that these two do not appear to have anything better to do, so they are trying to outdo each other in the battle to show who is the better better champion of good governance.
Both of them can afford to engage in schoolboy stuff as Kenyan slaughter each other.
Let’s take the issue of vote rigging, which sparked off the kerfuffle. Honestly, why is it that the ECK miserably declared Kibaki winner despite irregularities?
After all, in the five years that Kibaki and Raila have been in the opposing sides that ruled the roost, only the small-timers have been ensnared by the authorities.
The big guns continue to carry out their activities with impunity. And it is not just under Kibaki’s tenure that this has happened or was expected to end.
What is important now is that both Raila and Kibaki should go to the negotiation table and face it out and stop this mass killing of innocent Kenyans.
Let them put their pride behind the interest of the nation and walk on the path of reconciliation and nationhood.
Hey, Raila you have the parliament and Kibaki has the presidency...you need each other to govern this peaceful nation. - Posted on Friday 04 January 2008 19:39It is sad how two people can take Kenya down and drag it back 30 years ago. Foreign investors will leave the country and may not come back again. Kenya was ready to redeserve the top one position in holdays again by taking the latern over from South Africa but now all seems so far away.
The killing should stop yesterday and it is unbelievable that in a country like Kenya this could happen. Should we be afraid of the next elections in South Africa as well?
Is Africa not ready to put asside multicultural differences and create a holocaust whenever there is a difference of opinoin? I know I should generalize but after being very positive and trying to put Africa in a better perspective I feel sad and helpless. Let the real leaders stand up right now who choose the side of the people and not just of the most powerful.
May god be with the people in Kenya,
Marc Habets
Managing Director OAVMM.Habets - Posted on Friday 04 January 2008 23:17These two fools.... What a crying shame. A political leader is there to serve a country. These two only care about their own position, despite their words. How can you continue to yell at each other, when your house is burning? They need to talk. They need to think about the interest of the people. That has to be there only focus.
Years and years of slow progress and hard work seems to be ruiined. Kenya was becoming a more prosperous and better educated country, and now this. It will set Kenya back in time. It will reflect on development in Africa in general. Does a country truly get the leaders they deserve?
And the worse thing about this all: These elections ruiined hope. Or does anyone see any? Kenya needs new hope. - Posted on Saturday 05 January 2008 16:46Well lets put it this way, Elections in Kenya have been rigged in the past, they were rigged in this year's poll by both Raila and Kibaki.
So, lets face face it, it is not about elections when armed men invade a church and burn children who do not have a vote, it is not elections when rioters have the guts to say they can turn themselves into suicide bombers - those are criminal activities so called by our law Arson and Murder and should be treated as such.
On the other hand the Kibaki team should calm down the arrogance, the issue is mediation is crucial and anyone involving themselves in a blame game is wasting our time as Kenyans of goodwill.
Lets be sincere, the Houses, Kiosks, petrol stations and supermarkets that have gone up in flames belong to the poor in the society the rich are still comfortably shopping at the prestigious Village Market, the uptown Karen and all other posh places.
As a Kenyan blogger who has won my admiration at www.abunuwasi.com puts it, "the rich are licking ice cream as we lick our wounds, They chase butterflies - as we carry our mattresses to oblivion, , they are watching Hollywood movies in sound proof rooms - as we participate in our own horror movies in real time."
The battle between Kibaki and Raila put in historical perspective began after the 1997 elections that Kibaki claimed were rigged and they joined hands with Raila to protest the results they alleged were manipulated by the executive at the time.
However two months down the line they fell out and Kibaki chose to go to court to protest the anomalies but he lost his plea before the highest court in the land -The Court of Appeal not on merit of argument but technicality - he did not personally serve the sitting President with court papers.
Anyway Raila went on to form a partnership with The then President and together they waged a vicious battle on the opposition, however the opposition joined hands and literally pulled the rag from their feet - so cleverly done was the political strategy that Raila had to endorse Kibaki and a joint opposition beat President Moi's successor Uhuru Kenyatta at the ballot in 2002.
A pre-election Memorandum of Understanding was to be the cause of yet another fallout only months after a battle that went all the way to the ballot during a referendum to endorse or reject a proposed new constitution. Again the battle between Raila and Kibaki reduced the exercise into a political platform and the argument by Raila was more convincing since the nation voted out the proposed constitution whose main support came from government.
Then the 2007 elections and the campaigns were ever close to a point that even the exit polls published by the globally reputed Institute for Democracy (IED) were ignored - they had projected a Kibaki win. Exit polls are ever more accurate than Opinion polls.
So post election and the battle between the two men continues and the supporters are the ones who suffer, never mind the fact that Raila's first born son Fidel Odinga is married to one Nyambura a cousin to Uhuru Kenyatta, Kibaki is the godfather of Uhuru Kenyatta and thus are related by blood to some extension.
So those who suffer are those outside that circle, besides Raila and Kibaki own an oil refinery jointly and what we are currently witnessing is merely a bitter public show that we must reject as Kenyans.
In other words, we should all step into the future, let the politicians fight their wars in the boardrooms, for thats where they belong or better still in Parliament, where they have always unleashed their might at each other.
But for we the citizens of Kenya - the solution is back to normal life, no politician is worth dying for....they do not lay food on our table and every time we fight they are themselves working and are being paid for being MPS and we all know how heft their pay is...but we have our shops closed and our livelihoods on the libne...it is not worth it - Thats my submission. - Posted on Tuesday 08 January 2008 10:41Kenya at Cross roads
By Maina Waruru
While Africa and the reset of the world reels in shock at the news of what happened in the wake of presidential elections in Kenya, all of us must examine the real causes of the post polls fiasco and identify some of the obstacles to democracy in Kenya and Africa as a continent.
My assessment of the of what ails democracy in my country and to some extent the rest of Africa lies in 4 issues namely , tribalism, weak institutions, poor leadership and an near absence of a sense of nationhood.
In the case of the Kenya we all do that tribalism defines our politics going on to feature prominently in every facet of our public life, from the civil service and even in business.
My submission is that we have never seen ourselves as a nation and like every Kenyan will tell you we first see ourselves as coming from one of our 42 communities first and then as Kenyans .
We have in a big way allowed our leaders to exploit this weakness especially during elections, where we feel we must elect our tribesmen so as to secure our political and economic interests , never mind that the said guardians of our interests only care about those of their friends relatives and other elite from their communities, leaving us he rest of masses high and dry.
To be specific about the current subject , all honest persons are agreed that this particular election was stolen in favour of the incumbent Mwai Kibaki, by a weak Electoral commission of Kenya, at the urging on of a cabal of Kibaki’s friends, who feared losing power.
They feared that a Raila Odinga presidency would leave them exposed,to revenge, harassment , economic impoverishment and political oppression and worse even went ahead to whip up fears of the same from their community.
This group of course is made of elites close to Kibaki and in my opinion suffer from such as myopia that does not allow them to recognize that it is not possible to have Kibaki or even another Kikuyu ruling Kenya forever.
Part of the problem though can be raced to the 2002 polls when Odinga played a most pivotal role in Kibaki’s election to power, the promise being that he would be appointed prime minister in a controversial MOU document , that we are told had been drawn between him and Kibaki’s side.
The said MOU was never implemented and the resultant fall out saw bitter rivaly between the leaders that continued up to the time of the polls.
My contention is that he powerful men around Kibaki believed that they would be no more if Odinga won this poll and as such were ready to reverse every gain made since 2002 , if only to secure a Kibaki second term and thus their selfish interest and as they would want people to believe that of their community.
As a Kikuyu like the culprits, I must say that Odinga attracts as much hate/fear and reverence with equal measure. Being a forceful politician who often sets the agenda for national debate , he attracts fanatical support from his admirers and the exact opposite from those who despise him.
Kenya as such was bound to explode the moment the election he had been tipped to win was perceived to have been stolen ,
The fact is Africa and Kenya are going nowhere with democracy before they attain the kind of cohesion that allows people to see themselves as belonging to a country as opposed to community.
We all know the history of African nations, which are just but entities that were hastily cobbled together by our former masters, bringing together collections of tribe under a perimeter boundary.
The Kenyan fiasco may repeat itself in other countries where just like here when some powerful but hopelessly selfish clique feel, that life is not possible without one of them being at the helm.
The way out is to foster nationhood, nature and build strong institutions, the governed must tell the rulers that never will they sit and watch as their will is subverted and could be that way we may see a lasting democracy.
Again in Kenya’s case a generational change may as well help, for the younger people ie those below 30 years are much less tribalised and care even less about who is in power so long they have jobs and there is prosperity around them.
ends
.maina - Posted on Tuesday 08 January 2008 17:49Kibaki game is suicidal! I have just read that Kibaki has appointed Musyoka, one of the losers of the presidential election, as vice president and named a cabinet. I find this attitude irresponsible for someone who is supposed to shortly meet Odinga to find an amicable and peaceful solution.
Kibaki’s nominations is like a provocation, like kerosene that he is pouring on the Kenyan fire. He is adding a crisis to another. He is closing some doors that were still open for peace and negotiation. I heard some analysts were suggesting to have Odinga as vice president and his supporters in the government for a sort of transitional period.
One reason Kibaki is appointing Musyoka as VP is that he is anticipating based on Odinga’s suggestions. The latter said another election should be shortly organised. By appointing Musyoka, Kibaki pulls him and his voters into his camp, which would assure his victory if ever new elections are to be organised.
Kibaki’s move is much more political calculation than any other thing. The question is now to know how Odinga will react to this.Et in terra pax hominubus...
Latest News
OPINION: Welcome to African Green Revolution24/05
Egyptians vote in historic election23/05
Africa Day 2012 - a moment for reflection and…22/05
South Africa's African agenda21/05
Women struggle to rinse hunger, poverty stains21/05
Climate Climate change affects migratory birds…21/05
Ghana: Foreign retailers cited for currency…18/05
Kenya: Community radio brings succour to…18/05
_footer
Home | About us | Contact | RSS | Services | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy
Copyright Africa Interactive 2011 | mail@africanews.com
Powered by React - www.react.nl
