Kamau Mbugua

July 4, 2008: Prime Minister Raila Odinga has in the recent past been vocal against President Robert Mugabe, particularly in regard to the conduct of the presidential runoff election in Zimbabwe last month.

The election was generally described as being neither free nor fair though the opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the contest. In the days preceding his withdrawal, images of violence and brutality were beamed to millions of viewers by mostly the international media.

The violence in Zimbabwe, however gory and unacceptable, came nowhere close to what was experienced in Kenya where more that 1,500 people died after the pronouncement of Mwai Kibaki as president of Kenya last December.

Mr Odinga has proposed the deployment of African Union forces in Zimbabwe to protect opposition supporters, stopping short of calling for Mr Mugabe's forceful ouster. He has also prescribed that a Grand Coalition Government, as holds in Kenya today, be negotiated for Zimbabwe by the international community.

The coalition arrangement was itself not widely debated by Kenyans, neither was it made within the then existing legal framework. The only debate on it was by Parliament after it had already been hammered out under the chairmanship of Kofi Annan. Nobody expected Parliament to amend or alter the agreement by the two gentlemen and any voice in that direction was strenuously criticised.

The real tragedy of the coalition is the fact that it has eroded our respect as well as the effectiveness of our institutions. And that is where we ask whether Mr Odinga has the moral authority to criticise Mr Mugabe. Mr Mugabe's spokesperson, Chiramba, thinks not. In the meantime, the African Union Summit in Egypt has failed to issue a strong condemnation of Mr Mugabe.

This position is what marks in my view the beginning of the open assessment of our Prime Minister as a statesman and as a Panafricanist. There are several ongoing commissions of inquiry which are trying to unearth the facts surrounding the 2007 General Election in our country.

Depending on what findings will be made, one should not be too quick to take the situation prevailing now in the country for granted. The embers that stoked so vicious an ethnic fire can still be seen and felt all over Kenya and many people are yet to return to their homes.

Before we advise Mugabe let us look at ourselves first.

Mbugwa is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya.