President Kibaki ignores Kofi Annan's summons to Geneva
March 6th, 2009
Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki. Photo/FILE
Continued wrangling within the Grand Coalition is responsible for President Kibaki’s decision to pull out of a meeting called in Geneva by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The meeting at the end of March, was also to be attended by Mr Odinga, other key government figures, and many of the international leaders who helped mediate and end to Kenya’s post-election crisis.
It was supposed to assess the status of the power sharing deal between PNU and ODM, evaluate the implementation of the National Accord and draw lessons that could be shared with Africa and the world.
But on Thursday, it was announced that the President would not be attending, just a day after a meeting of his PNU party took exception to the manner in which the Kofi Annan Centre issued the invitation, likening it to a summons.
According to well-places sources, the President’s decision to snub the meeting was dictated in part by suspicion that Mr Odinga’s ODM intended to use the Geneva talks as a forum to push for a bigger say in the coalition government.
The PNU took particular exception to a statement by ODM on Tuesday that it would take to Geneva its complaints about not getting a fair deal in the coalition government.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said: “The President has no reason to travel to Geneva.” State House would not confirm whether the President had initially intended to travel to Geneva, and neither would the UN office in Nairobi.
But the UN office and the Kofi Annan Centre in Geneva sent out invitations nearly two weeks ago to a large number of people, with a covering letter indicating that both President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga would attend.
On Thursday, Dr Mutua asked politicians to stop relying on foreigners to solve Kenya’s problems, adopting the same tone as the PNU leaders, who are now saying that Mr Annan’s intervention is no longer required.
The Government spokesman spoke a day after PNU MPs and officials asked President Kibaki not to attend the talks, saying it was disrespectful of Mr Annan to summon Kenya’s Head of State to Switzerland. “We take exception to Annan’s purported summoning to Geneva of the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya. This is a direct affront to our sovereignty and one that sadly, ODM seems to support,” the party said in a statement.
Mr Annan chaired talks between PNU and ODM following the disputed presidential election results in the 2007 General Election that plunged parts of the country into violence. It is also understood that Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka’s ODM Kenya was opposed to President Kibaki going for the meeting.
Sources said the PNU wing of the government felt that Kenya had moved on and issues in the accord relating to land reforms and the constitutional review, known as Agenda Four, were being handled and therefore, there was no need for the meeting.
Tickets dispatched
Mr Annan and foreign diplomats have criticised the government for being disinterested in implementing the two issues. On Thursday, UN spokesman in Nairobi Nasser Ega-Musa confirmed that preparations for the Geneva conference had been going on for several months.
It was two months ago, Mr Annan invited President Kibaki, Prime Minister Odinga, the eight members of the Serena negotiating team, members of the civil society and journalists to the meeting, slated for March 30-31.
Plans to hold the meeting were started in October 2008 and President Kibaki and Mr Odinga were kept updated. ODM leaders said they would be attending the meeting on the day they called for fresh negotiations of the National Accord, arguing that their PNU partners had taken the lion’s share of government positions, contrary to the 50:50 portfolio balance they agreed on.
They said they would use the forum in Geneva to demand renegotiation of the power deal. The party said it had not been fully involved in running the Grand Coalition Government as an equal partner and maintained that it had been short-changed.
However, its PNU and ODM-K partners dared ODM to quit the coalition, with Cabinet ministers Mutula Kilonzo, Moses Wetang’ula and Noah Wekesa arguing that the coalition would not collapse.
And although the Cabinet met on Thursday, the ODM/PNU differences did not feature at the meeting.
source.nation.ke