Kibaki, Raila skip Annan’s meeting in Geneva

By Alex Ndegwa

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga will not honour the Kofi Annan invitation to Geneva, after all.

The Standard has learnt that the Government delegation that travels tomorrow to the Swiss capital, where Annan had invited a group of leaders and representatives from local media will be minus the two principals, and will only comprise half of the Serena Team that negotiated the National Accord.

Those who will attend the meeting slated for Monday and Tuesday, include Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi, who will be the head of delegation, Cabinet ministers James Orengo (Lands), Moses Wetangula (Foreign Affairs) and Martha Karua (Justice and Constitutional Affairs).

The meeting, whose agenda is to assess the status of the power sharing deal between PNU and ODM, and evaluate the implementation of the National Accord, will also be attended by members of the civil society and local journalists.

"No he is not," Presidential Press Service Director Isaiah Kabira said yesterday in response to a question whether the President will attend the meeting, "that is not new because it had already been announced."

On March 9, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka put to rest speculation on whether the President would attend the meeting.

"Let’s get this thing absolutely right, President Kibaki will not go to Geneva," Kalonzo asserted. He then added: "As a diplomat, I have been studying this issue for some time and it is not usual to get a former UN Secretary General inviting a sitting Head of State to a meeting outside of his country. I’m sure even Kofi Annan was not expecting President Kibaki to go to Geneva."

Annan, a Ghanaian, is domiciled in Switzerland, where he has been living since his retirement as Secretary General of the United Nations.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman Dennis Onyango said he was not aware the Premier would travel to Geneva. "I don’t know. In any case he never said he would be attending the meeting," Onyango said, yesterday. Reminded that Annan had extended an invitation to the PM, Onyango promised to call back with further information but he had not by the time we went to press.

However, The Standard has independently confirmed that the PM will not be traveling to Geneva.

Agriculture Minister William Ruto will also not attend and he explained why: "I find my diary very full of issues crucial and very important. We have to prepare farmers and assist them with fertiliser and quality seeds at this important season. We expect rains any time and you are well aware the county is faced with acute food problem. We must fix that."

Ruto said he was embarking on a countrywide tour to disburse free seeds and fertiliser worth Sh500m to about 78,000 farmers who are not able to afford the farm inputs.

Other Serena Team members Mutula Kilonzo (Nairobi Metropolitan), Sam Ongeri (Education) and Sally Kosgey (Higher Education) could not be reached for comment.

Right from the start, the Geneva meeting was thrown into a spin when President Kibaki’s allies took exception to the manner in which Annan extended the invitation — which they interpreted as a summons.

Instructively the VP’s confirmation that Kibaki would not travel to Geneva came just a day after a meeting of his PNU party asked the President to snub the meeting.

Lion’s share

PNU officials said in their statement: "We take exception to Annan’s purported summoning to Geneva of the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya."

Subsequent fresh demands by ODM to have the National Accord renegotiated — coincidentally on the same day the party announced its leaders would attend the Geneva meeting — hardened PNU’s resolve.

PNU feared ODM who accused them of taking the lion’s share of Government positions — contrary to the 50:50 portfolio balance in the pact — would use the meeting with Annan to press the case for renegotiation of the accord.

On March 11 Annan quietly flew into the country from neighbouring Tanzania and spent a night in Nairobi before flying out the next day. He didn’t meet any of the principals.

So intense was the war of words between the coalition partners that a meeting of the Permanent Committee on the Management of the Affairs of the Grand Coalition was cancelled at the time to allow tempers to cool down.

Annan chaired talks between PNU and ODM following the disputed presidential election results in the 2007 General Election that plunged parts of the country into violence.

The UN office and the Kofi Annan Centre in Geneva had sent out invitations in February to a large number of people, with a covering letter indicating that both President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga would attend.

Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende will be among key guests at the Geneva meeting.

 

 

Read all about: Prime Minister Raila Odinga Kofi Annan National Accord

 

 

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