The other big story from yesterday is that Kenya's rival parties have, finally, officially approved the constitutional changes to put in place the National Accord.
Reading the news reports of this from The Nation and The Standard, there is an overwhelming sense of optimism and excitement in how the two warring sides have now come together.
Both the President and the future Prime Minister made very clear signals about their willingness to cooperate as equals in the enormous task that awaits them. That is great, amazing news.
The President's hard-line followers had, in recent weeks, made comments that seem to undermine the entire basis of the power-sharing agreement. It is very reassuring to see the President, at least symbolically, suggest he supports deeper power sharing than his supporters.
It's difficult to project out into the Medium Term, as I am hoping to do in this post. Kenyan politics has been, for the past 20 years, enormously volatile. During this time, Kenyan politicians have demonstrated a remarkable ability to abandon principle and dignity in the name of political expediency.
What is being suggested in all of the news reports that are coming out now is that the political class has a sense that its time to move above the nasty, hate-tinged disagreements of the past toward a better future.
Given Kenya's previous attempts to do this, we should not be so naive as to think that this will all go off without a hitch. The biggest question, the one that is the hardest answer is the following:
How will the new drive for transparency, accountability, and meaningful change confront the leaders of Kenya's ugly past?
What we need to be honest about is that Kenya has an ugly past. There are many powerful, influential individuals who have gotten very rich off of state-sanctioned corruption.
A couple of those individuals are Kenya's first and second president, who have been accused of some involvement in not only corruption, but also torture and political murder. (I'm not saying they're guilty, just that everyone knows that a serious investigation means their roles need to be investigated.)
It seems extremely unlikely to me that former President Moi, or President Kenyatta's offspring are at all willing to open this can of worms. Any reasonable effort to do this would be extremely painful for them, their families, and, on a psychological level, the nation.
Kenya may need a Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission, as is about to be formed. I'm just not sure that the wounds of the past few months are deep enough to convince Moi he should hand back hundreds of millions of shillings, or for the Kenyattas to agree that they should hand over their land to the state so it can be divvied up among squatters and the local community.
I'm not sure it's enough to make each of these men's inner circles admit to their corrupt actions. Or even their involvement in political murder.
While the Moi and Kenyatta families and their respective cronies may realize that they can't stop the Commission from being formed, it seems extremely likely that they will do everything in their power (and they do still have a lot of power in Kenya) to prevent this from hurting their interests.
Finally, I'm not really sure that this is where Kenya wants to go now. Going through this--expurgating a sad, vicious, hate-mongering past--is not necessarily a way to create peace among Kenya's various ethnic groups. It needs to be handled very, very carefully.
Leaders from all levels need to prevent people from interpreting whatever Truth or Justice comes out of the Commission as supporting one ethnic group's claims over another. The Commission needs to have individuals from all over the country come forward with meaningful and sincere admissions of guilt and complicity.
With Kenyan politics where it is now, it's hardly clear that that is the most likely outcome.
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