Kenya -- Power-Sharing a Mere Stopgap

By: Ernest Mpinganjira
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[ Posted On: 2008-05-23 ]

Rather than confront issues head-on, the international community is routinely prescribing coalition governments whenever there is a poll crisis in Africa to forestall potential civil strife.

Power sharing is the latest fad in Africa. From Kenya to Zanzibar, Burundi to DR Congo and Cote D'ivoire to now Zimbabwe, African politics is currently dominated by discourse on power sharing between the opposition and the incumbent leaders whenever there is an electoral controversy.

Amid the din, little is being invested in constitutional reforms and democratisation, as was the case in the 1990s and before. This was when a lot of resources were invested in the fight against corruption and impunity, and voices for constitutional reforms were loud.

Today, Africa is preoccupied with fighting the commonplace evil of stolen elections, having relegated constitutionalism and democratisation to the backburner. Lurking in the background is large-scale famine and humanitarian crises.

In his diagnosis of the post-election situation in Kenya — and to some extent Zimbabwe — the chairman of Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Maina Kiai said last week in Ukraine that the crises are undoubtedly products of bad constitutions and the abandonment of the push for good governance, transparency and accountability.

However, rather than confront these issues head-on, the international community is routinely prescribing coalition governments whenever there is a poll crisis in Africa to forestall potential civil strife.

In the short run, coalition government template would lessen human suffering on a continent long accustomed to disasters.

So fashionable has become the power-sharing prescription that commentators on developments in Africa and the rest of the world are content to skirt around hard choices in favour of stopgap solutions to inherently complex constitutional and democratic dilemmas.

Kiai put the issues in context when he told a World Movement for Democracy in Kiev, Ukraine, last week, "For years, Kenya had come to be regarded as perhaps that one African country that was "a little different."

After all, Kenya had avoided military coups and major conflicts and wars; Kenya was the hub for humanitarian and other interventions in the sub-region; it was the country that hosted refugees not one that generated them."

In spite of political stability, Kenya like Zimbabwe allowed corruption to proliferate.

The monster of corruption is the primary cause of why Kenya lacks a foolproof constitution conducive to the entrenchment of democracy, Kiai said.

He said corruption feeds and protects an imperial presidency, which undermines the tenets of democracy.

"Democracy must mean more than having legislatures that sit and simply endorse the wishes of the executive, or when they differ, it is to perpetuate their personal interests."

In its March 28 report on electoral problems in Zimbabwe, the International Crisis Group (ICG) offered what is becoming a standard, albeit flippant, template solution.

It suggested that the opposition Movement for Multi-party Democracy and President Robert Mugabe's governing Zanu-PF share power to prevent the country from plunging into chaos.

According to the report published a day before Zimbabwe went to the polls on March 29: "If the situation deteriorates, the African Union needs to be ready to offer prompt mediation for a power sharing agreement between presidential contenders and creation of a transitional government with a reform agenda."

This was how the current crisis in Kenya was prevented from mutating into a full-scale civil war when the African Union intervened and urged for the formation of government "with a reform agenda."

The Kenyan scenario was worked because the East African nation is quite vulnerable — the economy was vibrant and any serious disruption was going to have far-reaching implications.

In the case of Zimbabwe, western nations ran out of options long ago, having imposed visa bans of Mugabe and his cronies. Economic sanctions against Harare have been in force for almost half a decade.

However, the regularity with which the coalition prescription is being applied portends danger to democratic, free and fair elections.

The long-term implications cannot be contemplated: election losers would use the same template to lay claim to power by deliberately declining to concede defeat as is the case in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Tanzania's semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar.

Unfortunately for Kenya, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe, the proposed power-sharing were excised from models for failed states and those emerging from war such as Somalia's transitional federal government, southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

This is why ICG's proposal that "a negotiated settlement need not necessarily remove Mugabe. He might, for example, serve as a non-executive Head of State during a transitional period until new elections can be held" is a potential prop for a dictator unwilling to relinquish power.

The soft diplomacy adopted by South African

President Thabo Mbeki has partly contributed to the dilemma Zimbabwe faces at present.

Observers opine that the meeting Southern African Development Community (SADC) convened in Zambia this week should have come earlier to encourage Mugabe to exit without a fuss. All Mugabe and Kenya's President Kibaki needed was a soft landing for them to concede defeat. The two are, unfortunately, victims and slaves of their cronies, so they need their permission to concede defeat.

The ICG template for poll dispute resolution is not serious as it is potential tool for perpetuating the hegemony of dictators and election thieves bent on staying on.

As Kiai observes of the vice in Kenya, "It has become a way of life for the political and civil service elite and is one of the reasons that Cabinet positions and high public service positions are in such high demand. Despite the high official perks that come with these offices, what one can make from corruption is way more important and valuable."

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

About The Author: Ernest Mpinganjira | Contact him at: empinganjira [at] yahoo.com

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