Country waits for Annan’s verdict

By David Ohito

The moment of truth awaits the Government when the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan delivers his verdict on the pace of reforms in Kenya on Wednesday.

Dr Annan has been meeting stakeholders, among them the Donor Community Group, the Civil Society, the Coalition Management Committee, the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation and the political class, to offer their versions on the reforms.

Annan is expected to deliver a press statement before flying out. He will be back in December to follow up on implementation of the reforms.

At the meetings with civil society, the groups piled pressure on Chief Justice Evan Gicheru and Attorney General Amos Wako to relinquish office for meaningful reforms to be carried out. His diplomatic magic will be required to temper the Government position, which claims a 90 per cent score in progress on reforms.

Similarly, the mediator will be moderating the parallel versions of reports on Agenda Four before issuing his final remarks.

On the Constitution, he is expected to roll out the best way possible on how contentious issues of system of government, levels of devolution and transitional provisions will be implemented to pave way for a new law smoothly.

Ban lifted

The civil society asked Annan that they wanted ban on public protests and political rallies lifted by police to allow for democratic expression.

The chief mediator is faced with challenges while handling police reforms, which is described as going on smoothly because of consultations.

The Judicial reforms have been described as guarded with little transparency over the envisaged changes.

ODM wing of the coalition demanded a structured and shared approach to all the changes in the Judiciary.

But a statement advertised in the media on Tuesday explained how the Government was committed to far reaching reforms in the Judiciary without explaining what was going on.

Among critical issues in the handling of the cases at The Hague is how and whether Kenya will formally refer the case to the International Criminal Court as per the Rome Statutes.

It was not immediately clear, if the Government would arrest those indicted and whether it would hand over high profile suspects in government.