Full Implementation Of The Waki Report Is The Right Of Kenyans Under The National Accord Of February 28th 2008 - Otherwise What Is The Point Of The Grand Coalition Government?

The disastrous announcement by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, Samuel Kivuitu, at 5.40 p.m. on December 30th 2007 triggered an apocalyptic outbreak of nationwide violence which threatened to destroy Kenya, so much so that on February 28th 2008 at Harambee House it was agreed to immediately change the Constitution of Kenya to save our country.

The new Constitution of Kenya from that date incorporated the National Accord signed on the steps of The Office of the President Harambee House, Nairobi at about 5 pm on Thursday February 28th 2008. This Accord was witnessed by the Chairman of the African Union President Kikwete, the Panel of Eminent African Persons and by tens of millions of Kenyans who watched the event on live television. It is not a secret agreement and was ratified by Parliament.

Signing the National Accord on February 28th 2008

The National Accord created a new constitutional office, that of the Prime Minister, and set up a power sharing arrangement between the Party of National Unity and its allies and the Orange Democratic Movement which is called the Grand Coalition Government. Kenyans accepted this odd arrangement because we had no other political option at that time – we accepted it and agreed to forego our constitutional right to have a legitimately elected Government as evidenced by a proper vote count and announcement by the Electoral Commission of Kenya.

But Kenyans wanted the past wrongs to be exposed and the wrongdoers punished – so that we never have to go through what we went through between December 30th 2007 and February 28th 2008 – and so that the wrongdoers do not enjoy impunity. Thus the National Accord also established high-level inquiries into the election process (eventually known as the Independent Review Commission headed by Judge Kriegler which reported to the parties to the National Accord on September 17th 2008); into the post election violence (eventually known as the Commission of Inquiry into the Post Election Violence headed by Judge Philip Waki which reported to the parties to the National Accord on October 15th 2008); and an inquiry into historical injustices (the yet to be established Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission).

The purpose of the Kenyan National Accord was to find a political solution to a dispute which was destroying the country and had at that point claimed 1,133 lives and forced hundreds of thousands of Kenyans from their homes. To date many have not returned and the survivors of the murdered have yet to get their justice and recompense.

Compromise was necessary for the survival of the Nation is the way Kofi Annan put it. He was the leader of the African Union Panel of Eminent Persons who had been tasked to persuade Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga to abandon the politicians around them who were preparing for a bloodbath and concede that neither could govern the country without the other. Today Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga appear hostage to the same evildoers who did not want Kenya to end its slide into anarchy and decline. Really the same people who tried to torpedo the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation process and the signing of the National Accord.

From February 28th 2008, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga have led what is called the Grand Coalition Government whose raisson d’etre is to see to it that all the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Agreements are implemented - Agenda One to Four too. That is the only mandate which the Grand Coalition can claim because as Judge Kriegler told Kenyans it will never be possible to know who won the presidential election of December 27th 2007. This is an important point to make: if the Grand Coalition fails to implement the Agreements of February 28th 2008 and the decisions of the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation process it should immediately cease to exist, and Kenyans can have an elected Government as is their constitutional and democratic right.

The following agreements and decisions constitute the National Accord:
• 01-Feb-2008 - Agreed Statement on Measures to Address Humanitarian Crisis
• 01-Feb-2008 - Annotated Agenda for the Kenya Dialogue and Reconciliation
• 04-Feb-2008 - Agreed Statement on Security Measures
• 14-Feb-2008 - Agreed Statement on How to Resolve Political Crisis
• 28-Feb-2008 - The National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008
• 28-Feb-2008 - Agreement on the Principles of Partnership of the Coalition Government
• 04-Mar-2008 - Long-Term Issues and Solutions: Constitutional Review
• 04-Mar-2008 - Commission of Post-election Violence
• 04-Mar-2008 - Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission
• 04-Mar-2008 - Independent Review Committee
• 30-Jul-2008 - Statement of Principles on Long-term issues and solutions from 23 May updated with implementation matrix

All these decisions and agreements are now part of the Constitution of Kenya and unless we repeal the National Accord it is not open to anyone to try and blackmail the two Principals, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, into dropping lines of inquiry into the truth of what happened in Kenya that cost 1,133 Kenyans their lives.

This is the true position even for the eagerly awaited Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission about which none of the people trying to trash the Waki Commission Report have dared speak.

The only just and proper thing to have done is to have full implementation of the Waki Commission’s Report – a report which makes eminently logical conclusions as to how to identify perpetrators for prosecution. I believe that there are sufficient constitutional safeguards for the soon to be accused persons built into Justice Waki’s report. The suspects are also fortunate that unlike their victims they will have due process and the benefit of safeguards against abuse of their rights under the Kenyan Constitution and under International Criminal Law.

In any event Justice Waki has only condemned institutions such as the entire internal security apparatus and especially the Kenya Police. National energies should not be diverted by potential suspects and strangers to the National Accord from the important and urgent work necessary to ensure that those institutions which failed us so horrendously are immediately reformed. The first reforms should be at the level of immediate personnel change.

We would start with the Commissioner of Police Major General Hussein Ali who exhibits no personal remorse about how his force gunned down 405 Kenyans in just over a month early this year, and who has promised to do what he did again should we ever have another bout of the madness which gripped us after the December 27th election. Reform of the Kenya Police is priority Number One.

A wise Kenyan once said: ukweli hauogopi tisho wala nguvu za majeshi (The truth is not intimidated by the threats and the might of armies);ukweli utashinda kesho, kama leo haitoshi (The truth will win tomorrow, if today is not its day).

Kenyans, don’t be fooled! End Impunity now. Implement the Waki Commission Report or Quit should be the message to Parliamentarians. It is a National Accord agreement and not the subject for interference by suspects or unpatriotic politicians!

Mwalimu Mati