HOW ANNAN DIFFUSED TENSION BETWEEN KIBAKI AND RAILA

THE STANDARD ON SUNDAY
NAIROBI, KENYA
April 5, 2009
By The Standard Team

A day after he landed in the country on a peace mission, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan found himself in an awkward situation. He hosted President Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga in tension packed meeting.

Coming against the backdrop of claims of a "stolen election" and ongoing bloody violence, Annan observes the two were uncomfortable with each other and he did much of the talking to ease tension in the room. The three were holed up in the President’s Harambee Office as the entire country waited outside with bated breath.

And for the more than one hour, the tense "meeting" was punctuated with silence, except for a few ice-breaking interjections from Annan. The chief mediator observes it was like trying to arrange a marriage for partners who are not ready.

The two principals with team of Eminent Persons.

These events were unfolding at a time when hostility between the two camps was at the peak and Raila and the ODM brigade had outrightly refused to recognise Kibaki as President, let alone utter the word "president" in reference to the PNU leader.

In his first public revelation of what ‘actually’ transpired at the closed door meeting, the former UN boss confesses nothing much really happened: "Yet, lots of people thought we were having serious discussions."

He says the body language of the two leaders was quite telling: "It was very stiff, but this remained unchanged because they knew each other so well.

They had too much history, which we knew.

So in fact, after we had gone through the preliminary discussions, I told them why I thought they should shake hands."

But what followed was torturous experience for Annan and the two principals. They were kept waiting in the room for more than an hour because of a podium and a microphone. Kibaki and Raila could not talk or look at each other. The tension was unbearable.

"I talked to them about conflicts and what’s going on in Africa and trying to get them to engage in the situation in the country, and the need for them to act. But they were not ready (to chat), so I didn’t push. So I tried to talk to them about other things," recollects Annan.

The Harambee House meeting was preceded by a protocol war staged by Raila and his ODM brigade. During a meeting at ODM’s Pentagon House, Raila warned Annan that he would boycott any scheduled meetings between him and Kibaki if held at State House.

"We won’t go to the State House because in doing so, it’s a recognition of the President," the PM was categorical.

Protocol wars

"Let’s get the appointment and then we’ll worry about the protocol side of it," was Annan’s response.

Indeed, the renowned diplomat succeeded to finally bring the two leaders together in a record 48 hours, after stepping on the Kenyan soil.

"I saw Odinga first and then saw the President. I told Odinga, ‘look, the two of you have to work together, the two of you have to save this situation," he said.

When he reached out to the President, he immediately agreed to a meeting under ODM’s terms.

Eventually, the two leaders came face-to-face for the first time at 4.30pm on January 23, last year, since the breakout of the post-election violence.

Although "nothing much" happened between the two leaders (in terms of dialogue), Annan was an elated man. This is the moment he had been craving for, to stage-manage the now famous handshake.

"My first acts on the second day of my arrival was to get the two leaders together in public for them to shake hands, and send a message to the people — to those groups that were killing each other: ‘Here are the leaders shaking hands, so hold your horses," he says. On their way out of Harambee House, Annan thought that since there was such tension between Kibaki and Raila, it would be a miscalculation for him to bring the two together to negotiate.

Tension at Harambee House

"A handshake was fine, but to get them into straightforward negotiations given the tensions may in fact complicate matters and blow up everything," he states.

He accordingly opted to defuse the tension by giving the two principals a sense that they would be involved in the peace deliberations but not immediately through confronting each other.

Instead he asked them to select three representatives each at the talks. When eventually this arrangement stalled midway, he handed the process over to the two leaders — by then tension between them had gradually simmered. But still Kibaki declined to cooperate stating "the Constitution says it’s difficult."

"I said ‘We brought a lawyer in, and Mr President I think it can be done’, as he asked for Attorney General Amos Wako."

Wako was brought in as Raila, feeling "lonely and unrepresented", insisted on getting his lawyer (Lands Minister James Orengo) too. With the paperwork finally in the hands of the two experts, Annan observes, the deal was good as sealed.