Angelo Izama
8 November 2009
That President Mwai Kibaki stole the 2007 Kenyan election is no longer disputed. The head of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, Mr Samuel Kivuitu, claimed to be under political pressure to rush the announcement of Mr Kibaki as winner and expedite his swearing in even as Mr Raila Odinga also claimed victory.
The rest is history. Violence broke out claiming over 1,000 lives. This week the International Criminal Court announced it will consider investigations into crimes against humanity there.
The Kenyan grand coalition or GNU was brokered by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and others to prevent the country from sliding into further chaos.
However experts point out that coalitions in Kenya are not new and that the deeper problem - one of perceived imbalances or sharing of the national cake - would ensure chaos would continue if unsolved. The notion of Kikuyu dominance over remains and recently a BBC report revealed that members of other tribes in the Rift Valley area fearful of a return to violence in the next elections were purchasing guns to defend themselves.
The GNU, meanwhile, continues to come up against obstacle after obstacle with Prime Minister Odinga asserting himself and President Kibaki seemingly trapped between his tribal allies and country.
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