Another Missed Opportunity?

I am fast tiring of all the excuses our so-called leaders (on both sides) are employing to avoid having the necessary talks so the current crisis can be resolved. So what if Kibaki chose Kalonzo and Karua to represent him? As Yitzhak Rabin noted, one does not make peace with one's friends! And Raila cannot purport to decide for the PNU whom their negotiators should be.

Secondly, someone has to lay the groundwork for a face-to-face between the two, as Raila wants. It is of no use for them to meet just for the sake of it without any substantial outcome. Let their lieutenants sort out the messy details and converge their positions so that when we finally have a leaders' "summit" they will have something to sign. It is how negotiations are carried out all over the world.

Meanwhile, As Kenya Burns....

The fiddler at State House

Isn't it amazing that at a time when the country faces an existential crisis, the Head of State remains quiet, safely ensconced within the protective walls of State House and content to let the police guns and teargas do his talking for him? I know that this is default mode for him whenever there is a problem but this time I think his silence speaks volumes about how little he cares for the welfare of his subjects (for that is indeed what we have become), for democracy and for the rule of law.

Just when we though the Big Man Syndrome was gone for good, Africa's latest reformer-turned-dictator, following in the footsteps of others like Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi, is now rolling back more than a decade of hard-won freedoms in a desperate bid to hang on to power. The so-called wind of change that was supposed be sweeping the continent is petering out in front of our eyes and with it go our hopes and dreams.

In Defense of Our Democracy?

Raila Odinga, during his interview on BBC's Hardtalk yesterday, said he is willing to join a transitional arrangement that would

1) recognise Mwai Kibaki as President still in his first term and
2) create conditions for an independent forensic audit and retallying of the ballots or put in place a truly independent ECK to organise a re-run of the Presidential election.

Most importantly, he said he would abide by the results even in the unlikely event (his words) that a retallying showed a Kibaki win.

I think there is still remains an opportunity to salvage the nation and even to make the necessary constitutional changes that would enable us to emerge from the crisis as a stronger democracy.