Thadeus Mabasi
9 January 2008
opinion
Kampala — PRESIDENT Mwai Kibaki has proposed a government of national unity with opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is the supposed winner of the December 27, 2007 elections. Following the collapse of the NARC government, it would require Odinga to first lose control of his faculties in order to accept.
The reasons for the collapse of the coalition include the continuation of corruption, which had been perpetuated by his predecessor Daniel Arap Moi. This was manifested when Kibaki provided immunity to politicians, who had been implicated in the Goldenberg scandal, Kenya's biggest corruption scam that saw up to pounds Ksh 640m disappear from the government coffers. "We must start from the top and the top is obviously the president," Kibaki is quoted as saying at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi in 2002.
During his five years in office, corruption has continued unabated forcing the chairman of the anti-corruption mission to resign. The draft constitution had concentrated power in the head of state and Kibaki sought the approval of such a Constitution in the 2005 referendum notwithstanding that he had promised to create the post of prime minister to ensure devolution of power.
It is against such background that the National Rainbow coalition (Narc) collapsed. This created mistrust between Kibaki and Odinga, therefore, a government of national unity is the last thing that the ODM can think of.
Besides, forming a government of national unity with Kibaki would amount to rewarding Kibaki for vote rigging, which was confirmed when the chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya told the media that he did not know who won the election and four of the electoral commissioners confirmed that there was vote rigging. The vote of no confidence in the Kibaki government became apparent when about 20 of his cabinet ministers lost their parliamentary seats.
The way to go is to form an independent interim government similar to that in the post Taylor Liberia, which ushered in Hellen Sirleaf and the post Buyoya government in Burundi, which ushered in Nkurunziza to preside over a re-run of the presidential elections.
The writer is a lecturer at Uganda Pentecostal University
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