ODM DEMANDS RENEGOTIATION OF NATIONAL ACCORD, BACKS ALSTON REPORT

THE STANDARD
NAIROBI, KENYA
March 4, 2004

ODM kicked a fresh storm over the power sharing deal with PNU, demanding renegotiation of the National Accord.

In its initial statement on the first anniversary of power sharing, Prime Minister Raila Odinga summoned his top brass officials to a three-hour meeting before they announced new demands.

The National Executive Committee meeting at Orange House delivered its verdict on the political union, saying "the Grand Coalition has fallen short of implementing the National Accord in letter and spirit, thereby short-changing our party in appointments".

Party Secretary-General Anyang’ Nyong’o read the statement on behalf of the party: "We were given a raw deal in appointments to civil service, public corporations, and the security services and undermining power sharing in several respects."

The National Accord, therefore, needs to be renegotiated.

"There is no need in staying in a marriage where conjugal rights are denied arbitrarily and ODM forced to abstain," Nyong’o told The Standard in an interview.

Negative ethnicity

Deputy party leaders Musalia Mudavadi and William Ruto, chairman Henry Kosgei, Assistant ministers Aden Duale, Margaret Wanjiru, Omingo Magara, Josephat Nanok, Ramadhan Kajembe and MPs Chris Okemo, Raphael Letimalo, and David Were attended the meeting.

The power-sharing deal was signed on February 28, last year, and agreed on a 50-50 real power sharing of slots in the Government.

Prof Nyong’o said the Government continued to operate under the authoritarian presidency, in which ODM was not consulted in appointments.

"We have abandoned the National Accord and we continue to operate as if there was none," Nyong’o, who was flanked by Mr Kosgei, said.

"We expect the joint meeting to review the coalition under former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the end of March."

ODM backed UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston’s report on extrajudicial killings, and said Attorney General Amos Wako and Police Commissioner Maj Gen Ali Hussein should resign.

"There must be effective reforms in Police Force to stop such killings. The party is committed to fighting corruption, negative ethnicity and impunity," Nyong’o said.