Deal or No Deal

It's all over the Kenyan news and has likely reached North America by now; Kofi Annan has struck a power-sharing deal between President Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga. The two leaders were on the steps of the parliamentary buildings, shaking hands and smiling. The deal is to be put into effect through an act of parliament which will re-open (it has been closed since January) on March 6th.

So far the reaction I have been sensing is somewhat mixed. My host family, sternly Kikuyu and Kibaki's people, feel this deal "gives too much". ODM supporters on the TV have voiced the opinion that it gives too little as the President still has the absolute power to dissolve parliament. Of course Aljazeera is rife with Brits eager to put their two cents in and most seemed pleased with the outcome.

It is has certainly been a trying time for Kenya and an interesting precedent for the international community. As one international observer pointed out, never has the international community had such a fierce and swift reaction to a political crisis in Africa. Often the international community has sat idly by while African nations disintegrate and they do nothing... think Rwanda, think DRC, think Sudan. Why the change of position with Kenya? Has the international community woken up and realized we need to take action? Or was it more based on the fact that Kenya is the economic powerhouse of East Africa and many Westerners have money invested here, not to mention favorite vacation sites?

And was the international community's reaction appropriate? Many Kenyans seem to think the international community was trying to infringe on their sovereignty with their threats of action if the Kenyan crisis was not resolved. While I'm not sure that supporting one political resolution is right (such as Condoleza Rice did when she said the US supports a power-sharing arrangement), I think it is well within the rights of the international community to refuse to conduct business as usual with a country in political crisis. But open-ended, non-specific threats against Kenya as many countries including Canada, the UK and the EU were doing... I'm not so sure about that.

And what about the whole power-sharing deal. There have been numerous political commentators on the TV listing all the African coalition governments that have failed miserably in the recent past. And the more I hear about the history of these two leaders in Kenya, the more it seems like their differences go much further back than simply the December 07 elections. Can Kenya overcome the challenges of a coalition government? And if the government falls, can the people avoid resorting to violence?