AU mediators urge Kenyan leaders to stick to reform agenda
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Xinhua, December 6, 2011
African Union mediators have called on Kenya's political leaders to speed up the pace of reform to ensure the upcoming general elections are held in a peaceful environment.
The AU Panel of Eminent Personalities, which promoted the establishment of Kenya's ruling coalition government in 2008, said police reforms and the makeover of the courts should be hastened.
"Discussions on elections must now move to the level of preparedness. Kenyans must now focus on the legal and technical aspects to ensure that the country has a free, fair and credible election in 2012," panel chairman Kofi Annan told participants attending a two-day conference which ended here Tuesday.
The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Conference, which started Monday, brought together delegates from across Kenya and around the world.
The conference came some 15 months after Kenyans overwhelmingly voted for a new constitution, which rolled out an elaborate reform plan to, among others, reform the court system, the police, the presidency and the executive.
Annan, who led the process of reconciling Kenya after disputed presidential elections in 2007, said he was pleased with the pace of implementing the new laws, especially when key deadlines were met as required.
"Hopes were high that this new constitutional dispensation would provide the framework and the impetus for completing the reform agenda, which was initiated by signing the national accord in 2008," Annan said.
He praised Parliament for passing reform laws and welcomed the establishment of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
But the former UN chief also regretted the focus of the Kenyan government had shifted to when the 2012 elections should be held.
"There is less interest in examining how much progress has been made since the post-election violence. Instead, the discussions are dominated by what the future holds for Kenya and the Kenyan people," Annan told delegates, including former Ghanaian president John Kufuor, at the conference.
The conference was convened by the AU panel and the Kofi Annan Foundation to promote a national discussion around what is required to build and sustain a progressive Kenya.
"You have to be aware of the time bombs. The forces that opposed the new constitution have re-grouped to undermine the new constitution," said Chaloka Beyani, the UN Special Rapporteur on internal refugees and a former member of Kenya's constitution-making panel.
Former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa, former Botswana president Ketumile Masire, wife of Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, and members of the African Union Panel of the Wise attended the conference.
Yash Pal Ghai, an international constitutional lawyer, said the reconciliation conference was meant to be a three-party dialogue among the government, civil society and the international community, on the reforms that Kenya needs to undertake to avert future political disasters.
"There is a frustration that there will be no proper dialogue to address the concerns of the Kenyans during this meeting. I wonder why the government treats this conference like this," Ghai said.
Ghai, who once drafted a constitutional bill, rejected in a 2005 referendum, said most crucial reforms of the bill, including those allowing the recall of lawmakers from parliament, had been watered-down.
"The bill has been made to entrench the tenure of sitting members of parliament," Ghai said.
Speaking at the conference, Machel praised Kenyans for passing the new constitution, which would take the country to greater heights.
"I stand here, proud of myself as a proud African, of the people of Kenya, who despite their sharp differences and emotional trauma, have rallied together to build a caring nation from the smouldering ashes of hatred," Machel said.
Machel, who is a member of the Eminent Personalities Panel, said the 2007 and 2008 experience was a reminder of the significance of building strong institutions of governance.
"Your new constitution, with its groundbreaking Bill of Rights, is a testament to your resilience and resolve as a nation ... The process of reconciliation and building one national identity is the fundamental foundation that must guide Kenya on a long journey to achieve lasting peace, development and social justice," she said.
Charles Nyachae, the head of the Constitutional Implementation Commission, said he was "contemptuous" of the government's refusal to engage its critics in the conference.
"It is a show that the government is unwilling to engage any other person except itself on matters of the new constitution," he said.
Those who attended the conference, under the theme of "building a progressive Kenya," said it mainly focused on how to create conditions for long-term sustained progress in Kenya.
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