Basics Kofi Annan should consider in finding the solution to Kenya's political crisis

By: Jerry Okungu
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[ Posted On: 2008-02-04 ]

There is a humble and self-effacing professor at the University of Nairobi. This is no ordinary professor because he is an accomplished academic and a top executive at the same university.

I have known this man since our undergraduate days three decades back and like all grown up adults; we have each grown in our different ways over time.

The other day this humble achiever looked me up. All he wanted was to have tea with me at the Serena Hotel. Being curious, since we had never touched base in years, I obliged.

On sitting down for our cup of tea, we talked generally about the current political situation with him occasionally referring to some of the articles I had published in the local press in the recent past.

As this discussion progressed, I realized that my friend had weightier things that bothered him and he thought it best to share them with me.

Without wasting any more time, he delved straight into the political crisis in Kenya that had stalled the reopening of all institutions of higher learning in the country. I could see how the latest developments had affected his sector directly.

Being a professor in the Physical Sciences, one would have not expected him to have a very clear understanding of Kenya's political crisis let alone present a clear comparative analysis between our flawed system and mature democracies of Europe and the United States of America.

In his opinion, our present crisis is embedded in the quagmire that is our political system. He sees us groping in the dark with a system that cannot work in a modern state unless we want to return to a feudal era.

In his theory, which I totally concur with, continued practice of the current political arrangement will further take us downhill on the path of destruction. There has to be fresh rearrangement of governance institutions like the presidency, the judiciary, parliament and the cabinet. This new arrangement should devolve power from the centre without weakening the presidency at the expense of other organs of the State. In other words, because political competition for State power has reached new levels in our society, it can no longer be business as usual.

The old era where the winner took it all must be discarded for a more accommodating alternative where power is shared among the top contenders in an electoral process like happens in France, Italy, Germany and Israel.

His theory offers the Kofi Annan two scenarios in dealing with the Kenyan crisis. The first version should be short-term and must be specific o the current crisis. The second component must be long term and has to be focussed on finding long lasting solutions to Kenya's current mess to avoid a repeat of the same chaos in the foreseeable future.

In analyzing the current crisis, he explains it in very simple terms.

He says that all Kenyans must appreciate that Mwai Kibaki is the President of Kenya, the process of getting there not withstanding. He could have won or stolen the elections but he found himself on the seat complete with State instruments of power. This position puts Kibaki in the category of W. De Clerk of South Africa and El Bashir of Sudan at the time peace agreements were negotiated in both countries. On the other hand, the same situation puts Raila in the same category as Nelson Mandela and John Garang as they prepared to search for a lasting solution to the civil wars in their countries.

In our case, Kibaki is prepared to cling to power (just El Bashir and W. De Clerk did) as long as it takes no matter the circumstances, because the alternative is too terrifying to comprehend. He is today, together with his coterie of court gestures, a prisoner of his circumstances. His handlers will remind him that he bungled the process and in the process have jointly committed costly mistakes that, should they vacate power, they would dearly pay for. To his advisers, they have to fight with their backs to the wall. That means they have to fight to win or die fighting.

Raila on the other hand feels cheated, wronged and abused by a system that today he considers should never exist in modern Kenya. As a revolutionary whose campaign platform was based on social change and justice, he will not sit back and let the status quo continue as usual. His mission is simple; to overhaul the system as we know it today the way Mandela and Garang did for apartheid South Africa and racist Sudan. His mission is to fight for the rights of his followers, many of whom have died in his name to realize their collective dream of a fair and just society in every sense of the word.

To Raila, Kibaki and his group are the epitome of injustice, inequality and falsehood; the three vices that should be stamped out of a modern state. He therefore feels strongly that giving the status quo another half a decade with its attendant appetite for abuse of office would be a disservice to and a betrayal for the country.

Given the two hard-line positions, the short term solution to the current crisis is to craft a win-win mechanism that will allow power sharing in a structured and secure manner. It will mean amending sections of the constitution to rearrange major state organs such as the presidency, the cabinet, the judiciary, parliament and the armed forces to reflect shared power that gives every state organ executive powers.

The main reason this could be the short term solution is because at present, there is a serious problem with the person who becomes the President of the Republic of Kenya.

Today, President Kibaki is the MP for Othaya, yet he does not sit in Parliament. Today President Kibaki is sworn in as MP for Othaya in Parliament yet when he goes there, he sits on the throne as Head of State. This arrangement makes it impossible for him to command respect from among some MPs that came to Parliament through other parties. However, when he takes the oath of office to defend the constitution, he does so in his capacity as Head of State. The same goes when he opens Parliament yet he is at the same time the Head of Government.

In the present arrangement, when Kibaki appoints his cabinet, he does so as Head of State yet when he chairs its proceedings, he does it as Head of Government!

The new arrangement should remove the President from being the Othaya MP just like when we elect the Speaker in Parliament, he vacates his parliamentary seat. Subsequently, Kenya today needs a Head of State that is above partisan politics, a national figure and a symbol of unity.

We need a father of the nation that does not discriminate against any region or group of people.

We need a Head of State that is removed from service delivery and day today running of the affairs of state. We need a Head of State that is more concerned with projecting our image abroad than getting embroiled in local politics.

This paper therefore proposes the following arrangement in our government structure.

We should create a National Council State to be chaired by the President. It should have 6 other members. The other members should be The Deputy President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the National Assembly, Chief Justice and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.

Based on the strength of political parties in Parliament, and considering that President Kibaki is already in power even if by default, the post of Deputy President should go to Raila Odinga with the following portfolio: Internal Affairs that will consist of Home Affairs, Internal Security, National Defence, Provincial Administration, Public Service and Special Programmes.

This arrangement will render the post of Vice President redundant; however, if President Kibaki insists on having Kalonzo Musyoka where he is now, then, he should be given Foreign Affairs and Regional Co-operation portfolios.

Both Raila and Kalonzo should have Ministers of State serving under them.

In forming the Cabinet of National Unity, the party with the majority in Parliament should produce the Prime Minister that will form the Cabinet in consultation with the Presidency. The distribution of Cabinet posts should be on a proratta basis as follows based on their relative strengths in the National Assembly:

Assuming that we will have a maximum of 24 cabinet posts, ODM with 102 MPs will have 12 ministers, PNU with 43 MPs will have 5 ministers, while ODM Kenya with 16 Mps will get 2 ministers, KANU with 14 MPs gets 2 ministers while smaller parties with 32 MPs will be entitled to 3 ministerial positions.

This arrangement has worked very well in countries like Germany, Israel and Italy where more than two political parties have had more or less equal strengths in every election.

The reason why this arrangement must be negotiated and built into the current constitution is to avoid a situation where the President reneges on his promises and decides at one point that the negotiated settlement has no basis in law and therefore gets rid of coalition partners at will.

If this arrangement takes effect, it should be allowed to operate for five years while giving the current Parliament some breathing space to overhaul the constitution, introduce stronger regional governments, establish a second tier Parliament, strengthen itself, the Judiciary and establish truly non-partisan civil and military services to guarantee a future just, fair and secure state and its citizens.

In this arrangement, there will be no losers. All will be winners.onsider in finding the solution to Kenya's political crisis

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

Jerry Okungu is a freelance political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya. Jerry also serves as a Board Director at The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Jerry has written extensively on issues affecting Kenya and the rest of Africa over the years. Other articles written by Jerry Okungu are available at this location

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