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World watches every step Kenya
makes
Published on February 3, 2008, 12:00 am
By Dennis Onyango
Peace talks enter the make-or-break stage on Monday even as
international pressure for a quick end to the firestorm of
destruction, deaths and displacement, intensifies.
It will also be race against time as the parties involved have
committed themselves to a programme of action that could end the
skirmishes in the next seven and 15 days.
The crucial day could be Wednesday when the negotiators are
expected to discuss Orange’s stand that Kibaki is in office
through an act of electoral fraud.
From the African Union appointed mediator, former UN Secretary
General Mr Kofi Annan, and his predecessor Mr Ban Ki-Moon, the
message is the same - violence and impunity must stop.
The representatives of the parties to the dispute – the Party of
National Unity - exhibit mounting confidence in each other and
have made an important agreement on the first step.
The talks took a break as violence popped up in the Kisii-Kericho
border, triggered mainly by the killing of Ainamoi MP David
Kimutai Too on Thursday in Eldoret.
Youths burned hundreds of homes in a local market on Friday night,
sending residents fleeing.
In Eldoret, a mob ringed the Great Harvest Evangelical Church,
where two people were sheltering, and burnt it. Those inside fled.
On Saturday, the death toll of 800 the President gave on Friday
rose by six.
The talks weathered its first storm on Friday when the President
said ODM should seek legal redress over its claims of a stolen
mandate in the presidential election.
President Kibaki also blamed the Opposition for instigating
widespread violence.
On mediation, Kibaki noted that the solution does not lie in power
sharing, but in a long-term solution addressing the underlying
problems. But on Saturday, the Raila team accused Kibaki of
undermining the peace process, but said they would not pull out of
it. The party said its representatives in the Annan talks would
raise the issue with the convener.
From Monday, the parties are expected to tackle the disputed
presidential election, seen to be the substantive issue in the
talks and the trigger of the chaos that has ravaged the land.
The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Team is expected to
tackle the emotional issue of the presidential poll this week,
after clearing what were considered as preliminary issues like
agreeing on the rules of engagement and the mandate of the panel.
On Friday, the team sat late to deal with violence so that
tomorrow it discuss the humanitarian crisis that has sprung out of
the violence.
Talks on the humanitarian aspects are expected to take not more
than a day, but could take two.
By Tuesday or Wednesday, the team is expected to delve into the
alleged electoral fraud.
The talks proceed with the weight of the world heavily on Kenya,
amid political posturing, seen to be meant to give Kibaki an edge
over his opponents, casting doubts on the peace talks.
Under watchful eye
The arrivals and departures by high profile world leaders tell the
story of a nation under the watchful eyes of the world.
Mr Ki-Moon jetted in on Friday. On hand to receive him was Annan.
With Annan is former South African President Mr Nelson Mandela’s
wife, Mrs Graca Machel. Former Tanzanian President Mr Benjamin
Mkapa is still around, weeks after Ghana’s President John Kufuor
came and left.
South Africa’s Mr Cyril
Ramaphosa, a businessman who helped negotiate an end to
apartheid and was thought to be eyeing the presidency, is expected
soon. Such an array of top world leaders has never converged in
Kenya before to help out a nation once taking pride in being
island of peace.
One more time, the European Union said it would stand by Annan in
his effort to resolve the crisis.
French Ambassador in Kenya Elizabeth Barbier, who is the Head of
the EU team, said the EU will "do everything it can to help Mr
Annan in his delicate task".
Saying the EU is in close contact with Mr Annan and all Kenyan
players.
Ms Barbier said she is keen to make sure that "a legitimate
solution can be agreed swiftly and that Kenya can come back to
peace".
"I think that, as Mr Annan said, there are many factors to this
conflict. That the announcement of the results of the elections
triggered the violence is a fact. If we want peace, Kenyans must
address all the issues fuelling the conflict. That is what Mr
Annan is trying to do by bringing together the two sides. We urge
Kenyan politicians from all sides to quickly find a sustainable
and consensual political solution to the crisis," she said.
How that stand sits with Kibaki’s position that ODM should go to
court over the disputed elections remains unclear.
"In such situations, the accepted rule is to resort to the
established constitutional and legal mechanisms," Kibaki said.
Kibaki told African presidents and members of the international
community that; "For us in Kenya, the Judiciary has over the years
arbitrated many electoral disputes, and the current one should not
be an exception."
On Saturday, in an interview with The Sunday Standard, Ms Barbier
said France and the EU fear that the violence could worsen
alongside the humanitarian crisis. She said EU and France believe
there has to be a political solution to the dispute.
"The origin of the present crisis lies in the immense
disappointment of the Kenyan people in the face of an election
result marred by irregularities. The solution is political and
must be swift. Both parties now face a historic responsibility:
choose dialogue or bear responsibility for a political and human
catastrophe," Barbier said.
Barbier said it was also France’s position the United Nations
should get involved.
"France reaffirms its confidence in Mr Kofi Annan to pursue
mediation. It also reaffirms its support for the efforts of the
African Union and the United Nations Secretary-General to end the
violence and find a political solution to the crisis.
In the name of the responsibility to protect, it is urgent to help
the people of Kenya. The United Nations Security Council must take
up this question and act," Ms Barbier said.
Those involved in the talks reported that the hard line positions
politicians are taking in public do not exist in the boardroom
negotiations and representatives of PNU are open to all ideas.
But they also say that ultimately, it is the support of the world
Annan enjoys that will make a difference, especially when the
thorny issue of the political causes of the chaos is put on the
table.
Emerging stand-off
The weight the world has brought to bear on Kenya played itself
out the County Hall last week, when seats had to be rearranged as
Kenyans remained glued to their televisions sets, waiting for
Kibaki and Raila to arrive, to take their seats and launch the
peace teams.
Unknown to the public, a stand-off was emerging between the chief
negotiator and Kenya’s Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the
Cabinet Mr Francis Muthaura, over who should chair the day’s
meeting.
Sources told The Sunday Standard Muthaura insisted that Kibaki be
the one to chair the meeting, and ordered the State chair be
placed in the middle, awaiting Kibaki’s arrival.
Muthaura further insisted that Kenya is a sovereign State and
would not allow a foreign dignitary to chair a meeting, which the
President is attending. He argued that even diplomatic protocol
would not allow that.
The Head of Civil Service is said to have cautioned that if the
President would not sit in the middle, with Annan and Raila on
both sides, he would not attend.
With Kibaki’s re-election being the bone of contention, the talks
ran into danger of stalling. In the first meeting, ODM had
complained that Kibaki changed his speech and used the occasion to
assert that he was the "duly elected" Head of State, a position
even Annan’s secretariat is said to have been uneasy with.
ODM also complained that in the earlier talks, Muthaura ‘sneaked
in’ the presidential public address system, while the leaders had
been briefed that they would speak from the same microphone.
Observers believe it is the weight of the world that is solidly
behind Annan, which forced Muthaura to back down after the former
UN chief threatened to ease off the process.
"Annan told Muthaura that he had spent most of his life in
protocol related matters and knew better what is consistent with
protocol and what was not. He took Kibaki aside as soon as he
arrived at County Hall and explained. That is how Kibaki ended up
not chairing the meeting," the source said.
The two parties agreed to prioritise ending the violence and
tackling the international crisis before embarking on the
political issues largely due to pressure from the international
community.
Consensus has also built at the talks that speed is of essence.
When a member suggested last week that the team spends two weeks
discussing the violence, others objected, ignoring party lines.
"There is a realisation that Kofi is not just after coffee on the
table. There is a realisation that he comes with tremendous
goodwill of the international community and whichever position he
takes will be supported across the world," a member of the
Dialogue and Reconciliation Team said.
"Everyone is scared to be seen as the one dragging the process.
There is agreement that the situation on its own requires a lot of
urgency," he added.
The crisis has acquired attention and quicker response that other
crises in Africa. Observers say not even the situation in DR Congo,
where the International Rescue Committee has reported that 45,000
die every month as a result of the civil war or Zimbabwe’s where
the economy is deteriorating fast, has sparked as much outrage as
Kenya’s.
Ms Barbier said France and the EU are not keen to compare the
Kenyan crisis to any other, arguing, "Every crisis has its own
dynamics and must be addressed as such".
But she said, "It is unanimously acknowledged that Kenya is
standing at a crossroads."
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