The Displaced African

The country is slowly returning to a state of calm. Kibaki is ready to negotiate the formation of a coalition with Raila Odinga. Raila Odinga is ready to negotiate WITHOUT any precondition-like the tiny caveat of Kibaki stepping down and Raila being given what he thinks was stolen from him.: Why?

Some may say it is because the legendary Archbishop Desmond Tutu flew over to Kenya acting as a voice for peace. However, during the time he was in the country, Raila was still saying he would not negotiate unless Kibaki stepped down as president .

Others might say that it was because of the violence. Hundreds of people dead was too much on the conscience of both men and they just had to do something to put a cork on the bloodshed once and for all. Their actions don’t seem to support this. Both men when faced with the violence simply voiced the need for calm and Mwai Kibaki showed no signs-and still shows no signs-of stepping down or conceding his presidential power to put an end to the violence.

The Jendayi Factor

Probably the driving factor, or at the very least veeerrrry important catalyst in bringing both men to the negotiating table has been a short haired bureacrat by the name of Jendayi Frazer. For those who don’t know, Jendayi is the US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.

Here’s what’s particularly interesting about Jendayi’s presence in Africa. If you look through the newspaper reports:

1) The moment she concluded her talks with Kibaki, he was ready to negotiate. Tutu didn’t do it. The protesters didn’t do it. One meeting with Jendayi and he was ready to negotiate a coalition.

2) The real big shocker. She finished talks with Agwabo Odinga and he was ready to talk with absoloutely no preconditions on the meeting.

Here are my questions:

1) What on Earth did she say to them to fast forward the process so quick?

2) What is the American interest in our post election violence? Some have said it is because we are their only ally East Africa and the only one that has steady American military bases and a solid stable economy that supports American economic interests and they want to preserve that. This may be true, I don’t know.

All I do know is Jendayi Frazer is one powerful lady; maybe I can hire her any time I get a speeding ticket.

Just a thought

Be blessed,

Mwas

Tags: Desmond Tutu, Jendayi Frazer, kenya violence, kenya-elections, Mwai Kibaki, Raila Odinga

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 7:56 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.