Kenya: New Trend of Power-Sharing a Threat to Democracy
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The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
18 September 2008
Posted to the web 19 September 2008
Donald Mogeni
Nairobi
There is a scary political trend unfolding in sub-Saharan Africa that if left unchecked will replace the heinous tradition of social movements, rebel wars and guerilla warfare resorted to by unscrupulous politicians after losing elections.
This trend is the scandalously nauseating power sharing gimmick of giving some concessions to the opposition, banking on the false premise that this would serve as a quick panacea to negotiate post-election disagreements.
Most worrying is that all an election loser needs to do is to ignore the results, provoke violent unrest and lobby for mediators to swoop in for a so-called government of national unity to defuse tensions.
This, by all indications, is nothing but a bastardisation of the whole political process that upholds the norm of "when you lose an election, you have to step down".
As a power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe was signed on Monday, supporters of strongman Robert Mugabe raised their fists in salute. Opposition followers waved open hands.
The two gestures - one defiant and one hopeful - hint at the tension underlying this unlikely political marriage in a country where democracy has been on trial.
As with Kenya's new unity government, the most welcome aspect of Zimbabwe's grand coalition is an end to political violence. The brutality was triggered by the March elections that resulted in massive government interference in the June runoff.
Beyond a return to calm, it is impossible to know whether this team of enemies can find the trust and will to restore one of Africa's most troubled nations to the jewel it once was.
The deal defies the will of voters since it leaves significant power in the hands of Mr Mugabe, the octogenarian autocrat who has ruled and ruined this once humming commercial and agricultural engine in southern Africa.
The above premise is predicated on the fact that even though the Kenyan political crisis is potentially different from Zimbabwe's, the South African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union, chose to prescribe the Kenyan dose as a solution.
What the AU has failed to explain is the strange notion that Mr Mugabe and Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, who loathe each other, could ever form a workable partnership.
What further makes the option of power-sharing a rather feeble and cosmetic solution is its temporariness as evidenced in Kenya where the violence might have been stalled, but left in its wake a highly divided government.
If power cannot change hands through the ballot box, democracy is dead. All these developments merely entrench the view, held by so many, that Africa is not ready for democracy.
This entrenches the suspicion that the outcome of elections in Africa is generally determined by the nastiest, most brutal bully who can use the security forces as instruments of terror.
President Thabo Mbeki and the AU had one last chance to do the right thing by Zimbabwe and other emerging democracies in Africa.
They had the tools to do so in terms of the Union's own Constitutive Act, which gave them the right to intervene in a member state in grave circumstances that include war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
At least two of these conditions applied in Zimbabwe.
They should have used this power of intervention, but not in a way that will finally subvert the will of the Zimbabwean people.
The power sharing deal sounds deceptively pragmatic and sensible. However, it will vindicate Mr Mugabe's reign of terror. It will enable him to stay in power. It will be the final death knell for democracy in Zimbabwe.
This so-called "solution" will actually exacerbate Zimbabwe's problems.
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Mr Mogeni works with a development, relief and advocacy organisation in Nairobi
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