Friday, February 22, 2008
Hope over PM deal
Government and ODM negotiators Thursday closed ranks and agreed on the creation of the position of a Prime Minister. It was a major step in a process that may be inching closer to a break-through in the search for a settlement to end the post-election political crisis. Details of the powers and functions of the new position in Government hierarchy were yet to be fine-tuned by the mediation team chaired by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. The step could brighten the faces of thousands of Kenyans who have borne the brunt of the post-election violence and members of the international community that has consistently exerted pressure on President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga to end the political dispute.
Churches call for fresh poll
Kenyan religious leaders have called for a fresh general election as the only way out of the current political crisis. The leaders who comprised Christians, Muslims and Hindus also proposed the resignation of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) to pave way for its reconstitution. Speaking under the auspices of the Inter-Religious Forum at the Ufungamano House in Nairobi, the leaders reiterated their proposal to President Kibaki that wide consultations be made within the political parties regarding appointment of ECK commissioners to ensure the new body is credible.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Kenya in Crisis - Africa report No. 137
Since the announcement of the contested presidential election results on 30 December 2007 giving a second term to Mwai Kibaki, Kenya has been in its worst political crisis since independence. Over 1,000 people have died and 300,000 have been displaced in violence with a serious ethnic character. As former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan conducts negotiations for a political settlement, calm has partly returned, but the situation remains highly volatile. To address the causes of the crisis, it will not be enough for the Annan team to broker a deal on the mechanics of a transitional arrangement between political opponents and schedule negotiations on a reform agenda. A sustainable settlement must address in detail a program of power sharing, constitutional and legal reform and economic policies that convinces the drivers of violence to disarm. For negotiations to succeed, the international community must enhance its pressure, including aid conditionality and threats and application of targeted sanctions against spoilers.
View International Crisis Group report
Press release - National Civil Society Congress
The National Civil Society Congress
KATIBA HOUSE, NGONG ROAD
P.O BOX 10394-00100
NAIROBI, KENYA
TEL:+(254) 387 3332/4962
FAX +(254) 3871432
EMAIL-
Website: http://www.ncsckenya.org
20th February, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
This is a constitutional moment! While some parties want to negotiate the future of Kenya on a flawed foundation of the current constitution, the National Civil Society congress (the Congress) wants a new constitution to be the basis of negotiating the future.
MoreConcerns after a tour following IDPs moving from Tigoni to Kisumu/Western
Report by Lucy Hannan*
Movement of displaced populations:
Thousands of people are on the move. It continues during the ‘wait and see’ period of mediation. People are seeking safety in their ancestral homeland while there is an opportunity. In many of the towns I passed through, ethnic segregation has effectively been completed. Post ‘cleansing’-violence, there is a new phase of aggression which is less overt but bold and uncompromising. Armed gangs patrol urban and rural areas, issuing threats and maintaining segregation.
Westerners are relocating West, and displaced Kikuyus moving towards Nairobi. Trucks piled high with furniture and household possessions characterize traffic flow on all parts of the route, most concentrated around Nakuru, Kericho and Kisumu. Yet major camps for the displaced have not emptied, indicating the population shift is massive and continuous; costs and logistics are inhibiting movement of the poorest; and, fear of attack and reprisals have not reduced despite the recent calm. The Showground (Kikuyu) and Stadium (non-Kikuyu) in Nakuru were still full on Sunday evening, including new arrivals.
MoreKenyan Community in Canada in Action for Kenya
KENYA: PEACE, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION
PRESS RELEASE
Ottawa, February 16, 2008
Concerned Kenyan-Canadians living in the National Capital Region along with African and Canadian friends of Kenya are rallying today with three main objectives: to demonstrate our solidarity with the people of Kenya at a time of suffering and social instability; to support the on-going negotiations and call for peace, reconciliation and justice; and finally to recognize humanitarian assistance offered so far by Canadians to victims of violence and displacement while urging continuing and increased humanitarian support to those impacted by the fighting.
Launch of Emergency Volunteer Scheme for Kenya
What: Launch of Emergency Volunteer Scheme for Kenya
When and Where:
Nairobi East - Friday 22nd 2008; Tom Mboya Grounds, 10:00am – 1:00pm
Nairobi West - Saturday 23rd 2008; Kibera Grounds; 10:00am – 1:00pm
Nairobi North - Monday 25th 2008; Lions Clinic Huruma; 10:00am – 1:00pm
Volunteer for peace and development, Volunteer for a peaceful neighborhood!
The volunteering scheme approach for Kenya plans to tap the energy of the influential persons, retired professionals and youth leaders to bring about positive change, instill a sense of responsibility and equip them with necessary tools to initiate reconciliation amongst their affected neighbourhoods. Through emphasis on the need for restoration of trust and building social cohesion - it endeavours to promote ownership of the healing process, reconciliation and peace rebuilding.
MoreKenya’s Nobel winner Maathai receives death threats
Kenya’s Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai said on Wednesday she has received death threats since urging tribal elders to help stop ethnic killings following a disputed December 27 presidential election. Maathai, a lauded environmentalist and veteran of the Kenyan civil rights movement, said she reported the matter to police after getting three text messages on her telephone on Tuesday.
“Because of your opposing the government at all times ... we have decided to look for your head very soon,” said one of the messages she read to reporters. She urged the government to restore bodyguards whom she says it recently recalled. Maathai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her environmental work, was one of several big names to lose their seats in parliamentary elections also held on December 27. She is the latest of several civil rights activists—including Maina Kiai, head of the government-funded National Commission on Human Rights—to receive death threats during Kenya’s political crisis.
Group roots for new law
The civil society is calling for an interim constitution to pull the country out of the current political crisis. Once the interim constitution is put in place, it will oversee a complete overhaul of the current constitution, bringing in new institutions of governance, civil society members representing 160 lobby groups said Wednesday in a press conference in Nairobi under the auspices of the National Civil Society Congress (NCSC).
Annan’s team in crucial talks over PM’s role
Government and ODM negotiators in the Kofi Annan-led talks were Wednesday evening on the verge of reaching agreement on the creation of a prime minister’s post. But they were yet to agree on exactly what powers and responsibilities the holder of the office should have. Although the details of the position were yet to be worked out, it heralded the beginning of softening of hard-line positions that the two sides have taken since former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan embarked on the mediation process on January 29.
Sources close to the National Dialogue and Reconciliation Committee, which Mr Annan chairs, revealed that both Government and ODM sides had agreed on the need to create the premier’s post as part of the political settlement. It is understood that the resolution was made by the four-member working group of the mediation team appointed on Tuesday to explore the options of governance structures that could be acceptable to both sides.
Media shrugs off ban threat
The media fraternity Wednesday reacted sharply to threats by the Government to disband the Media Council of Kenya. This follows their move to establish a taskforce to audit how media houses covered last year’s general elections and the subsequent violence. The council’s taskforce is chaired by Mr Peter Mutie of the Public Relations Society of Kenya with Mr Hiram Mucheke of the Kenya Institute of Mass Communications, Dr Levi Obonyo, a university lecturer and the director of Information, Mr Ezekiel Mutua, as members.
Civil society rejects power sharing
Civil society groups want an interim constitution providing for a transitional Government enacted. The 160 NGOs on Wednesday said power sharing would not be a panacea to the political impasse, and called on Parliament to amend the Constitution. At a meeting at the Centre for Multiparty Democracy offices, Nairobi, the NGOs called for the overhaul of Parliament to pave way for a Senate that would devolve power and annul judicial and electoral laws.
Kibaki tells opposition not to dictate solutions
President Kibaki met the Government Coalition Parliamentary Group and declared that there was no constitutional vacuum. The President at the same time warned against inciting Kenyans into acts that could derail the peace talks and told the Opposition not to dictate solutions. “This is not the time to dictate solutions, but to reason together so that we can find short and long term sustainable solutions to the challenges we face,’’ said Kibaki at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.
ODM MPs threaten mass action over talks
The ODM Parliamentary Group has demanded that Parliament be summoned in one week to amend the Constitution to implement the mediation talks’ proposals. The more than 90 MPs warned on Wednesday that if that did not happen, ODM would call for peaceful mass action. The party dismissed PNU’s call that mediation proposals must be constitutional as a ploy to delay decisions.
MoreChina has proved it’s not a friend to count on
Outsiders — only in the literal sense since the world is now a global village — got embedded in the Kenya tragedy after ballots became bullets. In the face of causeless and atavistic bloodletting, irresponsible display of State might, misplaced aggression, retrogressive exhibition of prejudice and agile protesters, only irresponsible outsiders would have cheered, while proclaiming non-interference. China is one such prisoner of indifference. China is a ‘development partner’ no country should count on to take a position on the side of reason.
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