THANK YOU ODINGA AND KENYATTA: A LESSON IN RECONCILIATION AND ACCOMMODATION IN AFRICAN POLITICS.

THANK YOU ODINGA AND KENYATTA: A LESSON IN RECONCILIATION AND ACCOMMODATION IN AFRICAN POLITICS.

C (2018)          CHIBU NDUBUISI                   19/03/2018 WEEK 12

Reconciliation should be accompanied by justice, otherwise it will not last. While we all hope for peace it shouldn't be peace at any cost but peace based on principle, on justice.  Corazon Aquino

                                          

Peace be upon you.

As a peacebuilding agent, I am against wars because I know that there are other ways of settling disputes. We cannot live together by killing each other. The inability of Gowon and Ojukwu to talk led to Biafran war. The failure of communication often times leads to misconception, misinterpretation, and misinformation.

A school of thought defined reconciliation as “the restoration of friendly relations, the action of making one view or belief compatible with another and to reestablish a close relationship”.

The economic, psychological, collateral damages associated with wars are too high as we know, except for war vendors or spoilers in peace processes that wants the status quo of exploitation, deprivation, disenfranchisement to remain so long, as to enable the machinery of a heartless profiteering gang from the old order to keep running unabated.

Let me present a timeline and sequence of events that led to the present crisis in Kenya from 2017-2018.

PRE-ELECTION CRISIS; On July 31st, 2017, the Election commission's IT manager was tortured and murdered.

ELECTION;

On August 8th, 2017, the presidential election in Kenya pitted the Jubilee Alliance led by Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta of Kikuyu tribe against the National Super Alliance (NASA) led by Mr. Raila Odinga from the Luo tribe.  When the votes were counted, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission(IEBC) on Aug 11th, 2017, Kenyatta was declared winner the umpire declared that President Kenyatta had won 8.2 million votes, (54 percent) to Mr. Odinga’s 6.8 million votes (45 percent). 

SUPREME COURT UPTURNS ELECTION

Odinga went to court Aug. 18th, 2017 challenging the election and on Sept. 1st, 2017, The Kenyan Supreme Court, in an unprecedented ruling, upheld his claims and ordered fresh elections to be held in 60 days.

BOYCOTT.

On Sept. 26th, 2017, Opposition called for resignations in IEBC that is the electoral body. On Oct 10th, 2017 Odinga drops out the election. A re-run election was conducted on October 17 with Odinga leading a boycott of the poll.  Kenyatta was, therefore, declared elected and was sworn-in for a second term on November 28th, 2017.

Raila Odinga issued a statement that "Today will go down in history as a 'Day of Infamy'. A nation's destiny depends upon its freedom to elect leaders."

TENSION/ SWEARING IN OF PARALLEL PRESIDENT

Odinga was sworn in at a mock ceremony at Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Jan. 30th, 2018. He said that “Kenyans have taken a step to free themselves from a dictatorial government that has been brought about by stealing elections,” Mr. Raila Odinga’s was “sworn in” as the “People’s President” of the Republic of Kenya, after he had boycotted the country’s last presidential election. “by appointing himself a parallel president.

Uhuru Kenyatta went ahead to shut down TV stations that covered the events and threatened the independence of the courts”, some of those involved in the ceremony were arrested and others were forced on exile on the ground that their actions were treasonable.

On the day Kenyatta was being sworn in, Odinga was addressing his supporters. He said he was setting up a “National Resistance Movement” with the stated intention of establishing a parallel government in Kenya. We can remember that prior to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria, Rotimi Amaechi a former governor said the “if APC loses the elections, they will form a parallel government and make the country ungovernable”. The same message of war but re-echoed in different environments.

Odinga also went ahead and noted on his Twitter handle that he is now the “President of the Republic of Kenya.”

RECONCILIATION:

In a joint press conference on March 9th, 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga promised to begin the process of reconciliation following their bitter standoff around the 2017 elections that raised the specter of ethnic violence.

President Uhuru Kenyatta met opposition leader Raila Odinga in public for the first time since last year's hotly-disputed elections, with the pair promising to heal the country's divisions. Calling one another "brother" they announced a plan for "a programme" to overcome deep and long-standing ethnic and political divides, "We have come to a common understanding, an understanding that this country of Kenya is greater than any one individual, and that for this country to come together leaders must come together," Kenyatta said. Odinga expressed similar sentiments, he added, “throughout our independence history, we have had doubts on how we have conducted our affairs in the face of growing divide along ethnic, religious and political lines. Regrettably, we have responded to our challenges by mostly running away from them, “The time has come for us to confront and resolve our differences."

Omemma Dilichukwu one of my lecturers, co-authored a book called “Fundamentals of African Politics” in the book he averred about the variable of “ethnicity”, “divide and rule” and other variables of captivity bequeathed to us by the colonialist, how it runs deep in the political system of many African countries till date. Kenya is an example. Kenya at most times is called an “ethnic democracy” run by Kikuyu tribe.

We still have a handful of African leaders on the side of infamy, however, my take is that things are changing and we are incrementally “building the Africa We Want” that will be peaceful and prosperous Africa.

It was Desmond Tutu who noted that “Before Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1962, he was an angry, relatively young man. He founded the ANC's military wing. When he was released, he surprised everyone because he was talking about reconciliation and forgiveness and not about revenge”.

Peace be with you