Flavelle: Under the terms of the agreement, how much power will Mr. Odinga have? Maathai: They still have to work out the details, but he will have executive powers. We understand that the cabinet will be divided 50-50, and Mr. Odinga will appoint his own cabinet ministers. The president cannot fire him without consulting Parliament. He can’t even fire any of the ministers that the prime minister appoints without first consulting the prime minister.
Will this coalition last? There is a lot of political good will, especially since the two leaders agreed to the deal before Kofi Annan.
Should those responsible for the worst violence be punished? Or should there be some sort of amnesty? It’s very important for the law to take its hand. This is not the first time we’ve had tribal clashes in the country. It’s not possible that they only come up during elections. The politicians take advantage of these unresolved issues to whip emotions and hatred, so as to bring about tribal clashes.
Should Mr. Odinga be blamed for encouraging his supporters to rise up in protest? The politicians always said they wanted peaceful demonstrations. Unfortunately, none of those demonstrations were peaceful. I don’t think there was any doubt in the minds of politicians on the opposition side. Surely they knew that the only way they could make their counterparts on the other side to listen, to rise up, to pay attention was to create an environment where the country was virtually ungovernable. But in order not to make blanket accusations, we need a proper investigation.
Do you think ethnic tension will continue? One of the longstanding issues in Kenya has been land distribution. Most of the young people who went out to displace their fellow Kenyans believed that this was an opportunity to take over their land. We need the politicians to tell their people to stop attacking fellow Kenyans and instead wait for a peaceful resolution of the issues. This we hope will also facilitate the returning of the displaced persons back to their farms. But it will also be necessary for the government to provide security: the message that displaced people should go back to their farms has not yet been fully accepted, because the message had already been so firmly entrenched that these people were being displaced, never to come back.
Should the international community have acted more quickly? They could have applied more pressure. Two months was pretty long; one thousand people and over was too many. But the international community needs to be commended, because without it nothing would have happened. Many of us had tried to appeal to the two politicians to talk, but nobody was budging. They were very busy accusing each other, and the people on the ground were very busy killing each other.
Kenya was known as a stable, peaceful country. Can it regain that reputation? Kenya was peaceful, yes, by comparison to what was happening around us. But we had these unresolved issues. They are like a simmering fire that just needs somebody to come and light a match. And that’s what politicians did during the elections. But Kenyans are resilient. As long as they can achieve genuine reconciliation and justice is done, and people don’t feel like issues have been swept under the carpet again, I am sure that the country can turn around and surprise everybody.
What ’ s the lesson for other African nations? First, we’re not going to go anywhere if we continue to have imperial powers invested in individuals. As Africans develop their own version of democratic governance, it’s very important to recognize that you have to share power, that you must be inclusive, and you must recognize diversity. Second, peace is a very slippery commodity. It can disappear within minutes.
