Kenya: Bloggers hopeful of Kofi Annan mediation

When Ghana's President John Kuffour handed the peace batton to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, few people in Kenya had hope that there would be breakthrough in the negotiations. That was a month ago, when the political temparatures were so high and threatening to boil over to a full blown civil war. Kenyans were scared and at the same time continued with the violence. It was a contradiction.

But with a month of continued engagement, there is renewed confidence that there will be a lasting peace deal. This confidence in the streets of Nairobi is also reflected in the blogosphere.

Where Madness Resides sums up what many people are feeling about the soft spoken Annan:

Right now, I'm loving Annan so much that it's threatening to become a cult. I love his grit and determination, his “I'm not ready to contemplate failure. I'm not ready to give up now.”

Of all the people involved in this process, he's the only one I've been able to trust as not having come laden with a basketful of hidden agendas or worse still, having been lowered as a puppet into our circumstances by “vested interests.”

I'm the people, and I feel as though Annan is looking beyond the shenanigans of both sides of the political divide, that he sees me, and that he is using me as a true north, to navigate his way to the Kenya That Ought To Be from this desolate place called Kenya Today.

Kumekucha talks about the new foundation that the negotiations are laying:

Kenyans are far ahead of their leaders and we must seize this opportunity to shape our country into what we want. That is no premature celebration for the far sighted by any means. It is time to lay the foundation for corporate leadership and banish deceptive and selfish rulership – the NARC dream reincarnated.

KenyaImagine reported the breakthrough:

In a press conference Annan has said that warring parties have agreed to come to a political solution to end the current crisis in Kenya. Annan continued to say that the details of this agreement will be made public next week. Annan has also advised President Kibaki to convene parliament as soon as possible.

Former Tanzanian president, Benjamin Mkapa, who is part of the mediation team headed by Annan, has called onto members of parliament to meet with members of the mediation team on both sides.

6 comments

  • This is absolutely fantastic. I especially love the comments by Kumekucha. This really is the time to set the new foundations for a fairer nation where prosperity and peace is equally distributed amongst all people as opposed to just the middle and upper classes

  • joe Aruya

    i urge all kenyans from all the political divides to be calm and give the Koffi Annan team ample time. There is hope and politictians must stop being egocentric but initiate the peaceful process in order to iron out the remaining obstactles to the deal. God bless Kenya.

  • Alex

    Kenya ought to be defined.

    What amazes me the most is, when the two “opposing sides” are on “each-others'” case, they often claim to do so with the best interest of kenyans “at-heart”.

    I would want to believe that there is more to Kenya than the 582,644 square Kilometres within our boarders.

    I would want to believe that there is more to a kenyan identity than the paraphenaria (I.D. Cards, passports and stuff) that we carry with us for identification purposes.

    In trying to define “KENYA” we must ask ourselves.

    1)WHAT WERE WE IN “DEM DAYS???-dont tell me”HUNTERS & GATHERS!!!!!
    2)WHO ARE ARE WE TODAY????–dont tell me “KENYANS”-We surely aint, COZ ,if “WE-WERE” we would have tormented each other, the way we have, in the name of “AN-ELECTION-GONE-SOAR”
    3)WHAT DO WE ASPIRE “KENYA-TO-BE”?—its gonna take us a while, to answer this critical and self-defining question. But we have to, coz if we dont,…*-??*/.,?*!!?*/;’I DONT KNOW

  • Hey Alex,
    I agree with you 100%. I don’t think we can wait for other people to define what Kenya and Kenyans are, we have to do it by ourselves for ourselves.

  • gideon

    if only our leaders would put kenya before their self interests then we could be able to forge ahead as a nation and a people

  • derrick

    koffi annan has saved many live which were going to be lost and i really appreciate the work of koffi annan

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