Kenya parties agree constitution road map

REGIONAL – Kenya’s rival political parties agreed on a roadmap for reform of the constitution yesterday, moving closer towards an agreement on divisive issues exposed by the country’s post-election crisis. It augurs well for future cooperation within a coalition government, said chief mediator Oluyemi Adeniji, a former Nigerian foreign minister. More than 1,000 people were killed and 300,000 driven from their homes in the violence that followed Kibaki’s disputed re-election in a December 27 vote. The political violence has subsided and under last week’s power-sharing agreement, opposition leader Raila Odinga will take up the newly created post of prime minister. Negotiators representing President Mwai Kibaki and Odinga have been thrashing out longer-term issues thrown up by the crisis, Kenya’s worst since independence from Britain in 1963. The negotiators agreed to set up a truth, justice and reconciliation commission, a panel of inquiry into the post-election violence, and an independent review of the election, which Odinga accused Kibaki of rigging. The parties also agreed on a process and roadmap for comprehensive constitutional reform, a statement from the mediators said, adding that the talks would resume next Tuesday. Kenyans have been clamouring for a new constitution for years as the present document is seen as concentrating too much power in the hands of the president. I think more or less we have finished on agenda item number four, opposition negotiator William Ruto said, referring to the long-term issues under discussion. ‘One team’ We want to work as one team to unite Kenya. We want to heal those wounds that emerged after the elections, Odinga told reporters after meeting Kibaki for the first time since they signed their power-sharing pact six days ago. Under the pact, parliament is due to pass a constitutional amendment to allow Odinga to become prime minister. Odinga said his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) would discuss how to carve up the cabinet with Kibaki’s Party of National Unity after today’s parliamentary session. Kibaki’s office issued a statement saying the two men had agreed to ensure the deal would be implemented fully. ‘The president and the ODM leader also agreed to work together towards uniting all Kenyans and accelerating the healing process by holding meetings with different communities with a view to ensuring that wananchi (the people) live together peacefully,’ the statement added. Dorothy Angote, Kenya’s vice minister for justice, said the agreement between Kibaki and Odinga was a triumph for dialogue and diplomacy and also for peace and reconciliation. Angote was addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council whose 47 member states are meeting in Geneva to examine abuses worldwide. A government-funded rights group called on Kibaki and Odinga to visit Kenya’s worst-affected areas together to foster national reconciliation after clashes that shattered the country’s image as a stable haven in a conflict-ridden region. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) also said it would carry out an investigation into the violence, with its findings due to be released later this month. Despite the progress made, analysts say there is still much more to be done to resolve deep grievances over the distribution of land, wealth and power that fuelled the post-election unrest. State ‘sanctioned’ clashes Meanwhile, the BBC has learnt of allegations of state-sanctioned violence in Kenya during the recent post-poll crisis. Sources allege that meetings were hosted at the official residence of the president between the banned Mungiki militia and senior government figures. The aim was to hire them as a defence force in the Rift Valley to protect the president’s Kikuyu community. The government has declined to respond to the allegations which are likely to be investigated by a new commission. The allegations come as the country’s parliament is due to open today preparing the way for a new coalition government. Although parliament’s focus will be on healing ethnic divisions and creating a coalition government – allegations of state involvement with a banned Kikuyu militia, known as Mungiki, will not go ignored. Not least because of growing suspicion that some of the violence that led to 1,500 people being killed and hundreds of thousands displaced was orchestrated by both sides of the political divide. Gangs with machetes The BBC source, who is a member of the Kikuyu tribe and who is now in hiding after receiving death threats, alleged: Three members of the gang met at State House... and after the elections and the violence the militias were called again and they were given a duty to defend the Kikuyu in Rift Valley and we know they were there in numbers. On the weekend of January 25, the Rift Valley towns of Nakuru and then Naivasha were the focus of the some of the worst post-election violence. Eyewitnesses spoke of non-Kikuyu homes being marked, then gangs with machetes - who they claim were Mungiki - attacked people who were from other ethnic groups. Sources inside the Mungiki have told the BBC that it was a renegade branch of the outfit that was responsible for violence, not them. A policeman who was on duty at the time, who has spoken to the BBC on condition of anonymity, has also pointed to clear signs of state complicity. He alleges that in the hours before the violence in Nakuru, police officers had orders not to stop a convoy of minibus taxis, called matatus, packed with men when they arrived at police checkpoints. When we were there... I saw about 12 of them [matatus] packed with men, he said. There were no females... I could see they were armed. We were ordered not to stop the vehicles to allow them to go. The current and previous minister for internal security have both been invited to respond to the allegations. So far they have declined to do so. The allegations come at a time of growing concern that there was pre-planned violence on both sides of the political fence, in the aftermath of Kenya’s disputed election result. The international crisis group has already raised such concerns and Human Rights Watch is expected to publish its report making similar claims shortly. There are plans to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the coming weeks to examine claims of election violence. The allegations are likely to be among the themes investigated by a commission created to address the issue of post-election skirmishes. However, Kenyan authorities last evening described the allegations as baseless. Agencies