Rob Macaire

UK and Kenya -Geneva Conference on Kenya

Today I am writing from Geneva, where Kofi Annan is hosting a conference to learn lessons from the Kenya crisis a year ago, and the National Accord that brought it to an end.   It’s a serious occasion, with a lot of the people who were involved in the negotiations, including from the ‘Serena team’, and representatives from civil society, media and the international community who all played a role a year ago.   Many speakers today have highlighted the concern of Kenyans about the stalling of crucial reforms, and people’s anger about the lack of action to deal with corruption.  Kofi Annan summed up a lot of people’s feelings when he said that ‘the time to act is now – signing an agreement is the easy part’.  Hopefully tomorrow’s sessions will get into more detail about implementation, including on the fundamental issues of constitutional reform, and a tribunal to seek justice for crimes committed in the post-election violence.   No-one here is under any illusion about the scale of the challenges facing Kenya.   I hope this conference will play a part in uniting all players (government, civil society, the international community) in a sense of direction and urgency.

Rob

Posted at 08:48 31 March 2009 by Rob Macaire  |  Comments[2]