When the violence following Kenya’s flawed presidential elections of 27 December 2007 resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people and the displacement of more than 300,000 within a month, the country’s political fragility was exposed for all to see. The sectarian, ethnic and political polarisation that Kenya’s leaders had previously glossed over – hoping that the issues would resolve themselves or just disappear – was dramatically revealed to the world.

How has Kenya fared since then? Has it learnt the lessons or has it reverted to business as usual?

Sadly, the facts so far suggest that the morbid flirtation of the Kenyan political class with violence and chaos continues unabated, and that the lessons from the crisis seem to have been forgotten. The cocktail of impunity, corruption, self-serving leadership and negative ethnicity seems to have intoxicated the political class once again.

The road map resulting from the mediation of former-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan provided an in-depth process for a new democratic Kenya, but with one serious flaw: the permanent, rather than transitional, nature of the coalition government.

A transitional, time-bound coalition government would have forced a sense of urgency to reform and address the underlying issues before facing an electorate with memories of the crisis still fresh. Without this, the political class has reverted to its customary arrogance, working contrary to the public interest.

The road map led to both the Kriegler Report, which focused on the conduct of the elections that triggered the political crisis, and the Waki Report, on the post-election violence. Of the two, Waki’s is more significant for its boldness, thoroughness and creativity, especially in its recommendations. The Kriegler Report stopped short of looking into manipulation of the election results – a ‘see no evil’ approach that encouraged members of the Electoral Commission of Kenya to assert that its findings of incompetence against them were not sufficient cause for their resignation.

The genius of the Waki Report was that it did not give the political class a role in implementing its recommendations on the personal accountability of those with the greatest responsibility for the violence. Waki recommended that a special tribunal with significant international participation be set up to investigate, prosecute and judge, and it mandated a specific time frame for it to be formed. If the tribunal were not established, Kofi Annan was directed to hand over the report’s damning evidence to the International Criminal Court to take over the accountability process. This mechanism was formal recognition of the fact that Kenyan institutions, especially the criminal justice system, are broken and cannot, as established, be useful in the fight against impunity in Kenya.

Naturally, the political class, with support from ‘rent an analyst’ commentators, attempted to reject and misrepresent the Waki Report. But the level of support from Kenyans and the international community for Waki’s recommendations has been strong and unwavering, and that could be the straw that finally breaks the back of the camel of impunity.

The vast majority of ordinary Kenyans want a break with the past. Notwithstanding their ethnic or political affiliation, Kenyans are united on issues that really matter. They want a government that does not waste resources on opulence and ostentation, they want leaders who pay taxes and who earn salaries that make sense in Kenya’s economic reality, and they want an end to corruption, impunity and negative ethnicity.

The challenge now is how to harness this readiness for change (and anger at the political class) into avenues that are peaceful, effective and positive for Kenya. Kenyans have been motivated and fascinated by the rise to power of Barack Obama, whom they see as one of their own, and whose style and substance is so vastly different from the leaders they are used to. If the cards line up as they should, and if the organisation and hard work needed to channel the anger and frustrations of Kenyans are done well, then maybe, just maybe, there will yet be a silver lining to the dark cloud of the 2008 crisis.

* Maina Kiai is the former chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. This article was originally published by The Africa Report.
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