A deal is struck in Kenya but the hard work begins now

Feb 29, 2008, 16:04 GMT

Nairobi - Kenya's leaders signed a momentous power-sharing deal that was greeted with a collective sigh of relief in and outside the country, but the hard work needed the make sure the East African country does not explode again is yet to begin.

Negotiating teams representing President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga returned to the table Friday to begin hashing out what mediator and former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has called agenda item four: resolving the long term issues that lie at the heart of Kenya's conflict.

The flawed elections touched off violence nationwide that tapped into Kenyans' resentment of Kibaki's tribe, the Kikuyu, who have long held the levers of power in the country.

A controversial land resettlement scheme after independence from Britain in 1963 gave Kikuyus fertile plots owned by the retreating whites in the Rift Valley, what became the epicentre of the conflict.

Agenda item four is meant to address the inequitable distribution of land and resources that is so blatant in Kenya, as well as find ways to hold accountable those responsible for grand corruption scandals that have gone unpunished.

And while Kenyans are relieved by the agreement which has diffused tensions ready to burst, they know all too well how much remains to be done.

'This is simply a first step. This agreement is not the panacea of the problems facing this country,' said Maina Kiai, chairman of the state-funded but independent Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

The creation of a coalition government is seen as a means to an end, a way to bring about the slew of reforms set to be discussed in the next phase of the Annan-led mediation.

The task at hand is weighty: for one, the coalition government must remain intact to see through the reforms. With power-hungry hardliners on both sides, it's unclear how likely this might be.

'Let this agreement serve Kenyans and not their politicians' stomachs,' said Ezekiel Izanda, who works for a non-government organization and lives in Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums.

The constitution must be rewritten within one year. A referendum on a new constitution to replace the one bestowed on Kenya after the colonialists left failed in 2005, led by Odinga's camp which argued it gave the president too much power.

The notoriously sluggish and corrupt judiciary needs a revamp. The electoral commission, blamed for bungling December's polls, also needs to be reworked.

A truth and reconciliation commission, similar to the one that helped mend the rifts after South Africa's apartheid regime, is set to tackle the bitterness and feelings of marginalization felt by many of Kenya's 42 tribes.

Kiai's human rights group has demanded no amnesty for those responsible for the violence that has left 1,000 dead, but recommendations by a committee to study the creation of a reconciliation commission in 2003 were never heeded and the commission never came about.

'This must be a genuine commitment to stitching the fabric of Kenya together again,' wrote Lucy Oriang', a columnist in the independent Daily Nation newspaper.

'Do we have what it takes to accomplish the mission?'