Ten years after peace accord, an uneasy coexistence

President Mwai Kibaki (left) and Raila Odinga sign the National Accord at Harambee House on January 2008. The pact was meant to provide the political platform for the reengineering of Kenya’s governance architecture to prevent recurrences of violence after an election. PHOTO | WILLIAM OERI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Whatever memories we repress still remain in storage, and often influence our decision-making, even unconsciously.
  • Unless we agree to honestly confront the ghosts of exploitation, we shall continue going through the same cycle of periodic election-related violence and uncertainty.

Thursday last week we marked 10 years since the signing of the National Accord to end the 2007/8 post-election violence.

The agreement was signed by Mr Mwai Kibaki, representing the government and the Party of National Unity, and Mr Raila Odinga, representing the Orange Democratic Movement.

The pact was meant to provide the political platform for the reengineering of Kenya’s governance architecture to prevent recurrences of violence after an election.

The signing of this agreement led to the enactment of the National Accord and Reconciliation Act of 2008, resulting in the formation of the Grand Coalition government that ran the country up to the 2013 General Election.

STOP VIOLENCE

This agreement was signed a month after the signing of another deal, the National Dialogue and Reconciliation Agreement, between the contending parties as a commitment to negotiations aimed at ending the crisis, built around four main agenda items.

The first was an agreement to take action to stop violence and restore a semblance of law and order, while the second dealt with addressing the humanitarian crisis and promoting reconciliation, healing and restoration.

The third dealt with overcoming the political crisis, and the last item, the so-called Agenda Four, tackled long-term measures and solutions to deal with the underlying causes of the violence, including constitutional reform, land reform, addressing impunity, poverty and inequity, and youth unemployment, among others.

ICC

The so-called Agenda Four Commissions were eventually set up to actualise this item, namely the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, the Interim Independent Electoral Commission, the Interim Independent Boundaries Commission, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, and the Committee of Experts to initiate constitutional review.

These institutional changes led to the promulgation of a Constitution in 2010 after a hotly contested referendum, and eventually to the first general election under the new constitutional dispensation.

In the meantime, crimes committed during the post-election violence were investigated by the Commission of Inquiry into Post-election Violence, which produced the famous envelope containing names of people thought to bear the greatest responsibility for the crimes.

These were eventually prosecuted at the International Criminal Court in The Hague after it became clear that the government was either unwilling or unable to ensure local prosecution.

The fallout from those prosecutions played a huge part in the 2013 election campaigns, and political friendships and disagreements forged during that turbulent time continue to influence our decision-making today.

MEMORIES
It appears to be a well-established fact that Kenyans have a most fickle memory, and they tend to move on very fast from historical events.

Unfortunately, the mind is set up such that we do not voluntarily determine what we will remember and what we will not.

Whatever memories we repress still remain in storage, and often influence our decision-making, even unconsciously.

Indeed, many mental disorders arise as a result of repressed memories, and it is only by bringing these memories to conscious awareness that the survivor is able to deal with them and begin the journey towards healing.

Ten years after the signing of the National Accord, a mental health expert examining Kenya as one would a sick individual would recognise the symptoms of trauma related to the repressed memories of 2008.

CHANGE

While we refuse to consciously discuss the lessons from 2008 for fear of “opening old wounds”, our political behaviour betrays our trauma as we re-enact the rituals of democracy that we had become accustomed to before the 2007 elections.

Our campaign language remains coarse and violent, our characterisation of our political opponents still makes them out to be something less than human, and our interactions with ethnic “others” is still marked by intense suspicion and fear or condescension.

We are highly strung, and constantly looking for a reason to erupt.

Unless we agree to honestly confront the ghosts of exploitation, institutionalised poverty, and ethnocentric political organisation, we shall continue going through the same cycle of periodic election-related violence and uncertainty.

And no, the solution does not lie in further constitutional or legal reform, but in deeper fundamental changes in our core national values.

Atwoli is an associate professor and dean of Moi University School of Medicine. [email protected]