Kenyans are frustrated by infighting in the country's coalition government and by its failure to bring to justice those responsible for last year's post-election violence, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday.
"They [Kenyans] are equally angry at widespread corruption and the lack of action to root it out," Annan added.
He made the remarks while opening a meeting organized in Geneva to review progress made in the year since he helped mediate an end to the violence which broke out after the disputed Kenyan election of December 2007.
Annan defended the agreement his mediation effort produced, telling the conference that the "national accord" did provide a framework for far-reaching reforms.
Kenyans had embraced a programme of reform, he said. "They are now rightly impatient for its full implementation."
But as well as being frustrated, cynical and disillusionment was growing. "This disappointment and anger stems partly from the fact that everyone understands what needs to be done to move the country forward. So the average person finds it difficult to comprehend why those changes, some of them very fundamental, are not taking place at a faster pace," he said.
He continued: "Ordinary Kenyans interpret the slow pace of reform as lack of political will on the part of their leaders. They see it, rightly or wrongly, as proof that the political elite are putting their own partisan interests above the interest of the nation as a whole."
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Annan said ordinary Kenyans did not feel they were part of the reform process. Politicians needed to engage more with civil society and share accurate information on their progress.
He also said that although the momentum for reform had slowed in the past year, "the situation is not hopeless. The government can turn things around by acting swiftly and effectively on the agreed constitutional, parliamentary, electoral, judiciary, police, and land reforms."
Annan defended the establishment of the coalition government, following criticism that coalitions were a means by which unpopular governments across Africa were holding onto power and avoiding the judgment of voters at the ballot box.
"Power-sharing arrangements may not be the universal panacea for disputed elections, but the situation in Kenya was unique," he said. "The options available to resolve the disputed election results – recount, re-tally, re-run – were not viable as it risked more people being killed and there were long-standing issues which triggered the horrific post-election violence."
