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Kenya: Government 'Clarification' Raises Fears Deal Could Unravel

by Rob Walker | March 11, 2008 at 12:41 pm | 224 views | add comment

After weeks of tricky negotiations and riots and protests that claimed over 1,000 lives in racially-fuelled violence, Kenya finally looked poised to form a government between the two parties.
However, after the deal was signed, the structure for the new government was announced and the opposition party is furious, as most of the power rests with president Mwai Kibaki and his supporters.
Analysts are worried this new problem will lead to more unrest and protests, as well as the furtehr destabilization of an already torn country.

The opposition swiftly rejected a statement by the government on Monday detailing a new political power structure, following the signing of a power-sharing agreement to end Kenya's post-election crisis.
The deal, reached after long and delicate negotiations, was understood to lead to creation of a coalition government in which President Mwai Kibaki and Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga shared power on a 50-50 basis. Odinga would become Prime Minister with substantial executive powers.

But the power structure announced by the Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Public Service, Francis Muthaura, suggests that practically all executive powers will remain with the president, with the prime minister only occupying the third most powerful perch in the land.
Muthaura said the president will continue to be the head of state and government, while the vice-president will be his principal assistant and the leader of government business in parliament.

Kenya's new parliament sought on Tuesday to speed up legislation ratifying a fragile power-sharing deal intended to guarantee the peace after a post-election crisis that killed more than 1,000 people.
Members of parliament proposed procedures so that two bills enshrining the new arrangement and amending the constitution could be approved within a five-day limit rather than the usual two weeks after their publication.

The Government has mounted the strongest offensive against the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) militia.

After a four-month mobilisation, according to security sources, the army, General Service Unit and paramilitary police officers landed in Mt Elgon on Sunday night.

Nicholas Ochieng was living in central Kenya with his wife and two children when a few days after the election a gang attacked his home while he was out.
"They went there and threw petrol, then my family were burnt to ashes there," he said.
Richad Gitahi owned a small, second-hand electronics business in a slum in Nairobi.
He says he was attacked by gangs that robbed him and destroyed his shop.
Both men spent several weeks in camps for displaced people before being transported to their ancestral homes in western and central Kenya.

A month ago, as killing, burning and looting swept through Kenya, the chances of a peaceful solution looked remote, and many pundits were predicting another Rwanda. Fortunately, the patience and personality of Kofi Annan, combined with arm-twisting by the U.S. and Europe, has resulted in a political deal. Now comes the hard part.

The economies of Kenya's neighbours are beginning to return to normal, but some fallout from post-election violence will be felt throughout the year in a region also hit by high global commodity and energy prices.
In the aftermath of Kenya's disputed December 27 election, gangs burned crops and blockaded roads for weeks.