In Kenya, Amnesty Rift in Rift Valley Echoes Annan-Led Mediation, Leaked Minutes Show, Council Passes Through

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press in Kenya
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1nairobi060108.html

NAIROBI, June 1 --As both President Mwai Kibabi and Prime Minister Raila Odinga celebrated Kenya's 45th year of independence here Sunday, the dispute between then concerning whether those held for political violence earlier this year should be prosecuted continued to heat up. Odinga favors release, saying this is not even amnesty, "because they committed no crime. Is it a crime to fight for your democratic rights? Or is it a crime to stand and say that last year’s elections were rigged?" Kibaki, on the other hands, said that those in jail should be put on trial.

Leaked minutes of the mediation led by Kofi Annan, given to Inner City Press by well-placed Kenyan sources, show that these very issues, of "reconciliation" and so-called transitional justice, were discussed in the process that led to the power-sharing agreement. On February 29, for example, in a session also attended by Ghana's former Ambassador to the UN Nana Effah-Apenteng, as chief of staff of the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation secretariat and Odinda negotiator William Ruto quotes Ruto

"that as a person from the Rift Valley, he recognized that the people there had resisted an earlier truth and justice process, having seen it as process of apportioning blame. In the current situation, however, they would be ready and willing to put historical injustices on the table in order to do away with them. Building police stations in the Rift Valley would not fix matters."

Click here for the February 29 Minutes.


Inner City Press' interviewing in Nairobi on June 1 tended to confirm this. Speaking just outside the Nyayo National Stadium, a man who asked that his name not be used due to continued fear said he doubted he or other displacees from the Rift Valley would return. "It's much worse being beaten by people you know than by strangers," he said. "How can you go back? The trust isn't there." He predicted the Kenyan economy will continue to suffer for at least two more years, due to the violence as well as to the worsening food price crisis.

On that, police here fired tear gas at food price protesters on May 31, arresting four. Inflation in Kenya soared to 26.6 per cent in April from 21.8 per cent the previous month due to the rising cost of food.

Members of the UN Security Council convened in Kenya, where they had planned to meet with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government. The TFG, however, is in Djibouti meeting with portions of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia. And so the Council members and accompanying media, including Inner City Press, will set out Monday before dawn for Djibouti, and after that Sudan. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1nairobi060108.html