Former Public Service boss Francis Muthaura has laid bare the intrigues that nearly scuttled the 2008 power deal between the President Mwai Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Muthaura, who doubled up as secretary to Kibaki's Cabinet for nine-and-half years, revealed that the third President overruled his hardliners to agree to a 50-50 share of government with Raila.
Recalling the last minute intrigues that roiled the talks, Muthaura explained that Kibaki's inflexible last word disappointed his allies but stabilised the country.
Muthaura recounted that the frosty negotiations between PNU and ODM sides had hit a stalemate on hot-button issues and at that stage representatives of Kibaki and Raila got sidelined.
He became the target of the Kibaki’s team as they pressured him not to let the President be part of the public signing of the accord.
“…there were some things that the mediators did not agree on and so they brought them to the President and Raila…..”
According to Muthaura, some of the President's negotiators at the Kofi Annan-led mediation of the 2007 post-election crisis were adamant against Kibaki sharing government with Raila as equal partners.
In fact, the former ambassador recalls, the hardliners wanted Raila's camp to be given only a third of government because the ODM leader had, in any case, lost the election.
Muthaura revealed that barely minutes before the President and Raila signed the final deal at the steps of Harambee House, he had to pull him back to consult further.
"So, as we were going to the signing publicly, I was under a lot of pressure. I told the President, let us go back to the office, we need to consult. That was the very last minutes," Muthaura said in an interview with KTN News.
The PNU negotiators who represented Kibaki at the Annan-led process were Martha Karua, Mutula Kilonzo, Prof Sam Ongeri and Moses Wetang'ula.
The ODM team had Musalia Mudavadi, William Ruto, Dr Sally Kosgei and James Orengo.
Karua was considered a hardliner on the Kibaki side while Ruto is said to have played the opposite number on ODM side.
Former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who was the chairman of the African Union, had successfully hammered out a last minute 50-50 power sharing deal.
“His [Kibaki's] side of the team were very upset to hear that the President had agreed on 50-50 power sharing. [They argued that] how do you agree to 50-50 and you have won the elections?” Muthaura said.
In fact, he said, the Kibaki team were insisting that Raila be given a paltry one-third of the government because he had lost the elections.
“Give him one-third. Is that not enough [for] somebody who has lost?” Muthaura said.
When they settled back in the President's office, Muthaura revealed to Kibaki the discontent among his people who were vehemently objecting to the deal.
Outside, a pensive nation was waiting for the white smoke and mediators led by Annan were supposed to take positions behind the two chairs where Kibaki and Raila would sit to put pen to paper.
In the office, Muthaura said he relayed to the President what the leaders on his side of the mediation were saying and their demand to walk away from the agreement.
But Kibaki was not amused as he would reject the spirited efforts to nuke the deal.
After long listening, Kibaki said what was important was not what he got from the negotiations, but the welfare and stability of the country.
“He said what is important is not what I get [from the process, but rather] the peace in this country and a government which is working with the support of both sides,” he said.
Kibaki continued: “That’s why I have agreed to this compromise and I’m sure it's going to bring peace in this country. It is final, I can’t go back on it.”
Muthaura said that he told the President that his decision would go to the annals of the country’s history as stately and selfless in the interest of the country.
It was after the President's finality on the issue that the signing ceremony got underway at the steps of Harambee House on February 28, 2008.
Annan in his book said that things never moved in the talks due to hardliners and he had to bypass them to talk to Kibaki directly.
When he met the President, he wrote, he told him that too many people were dying and he needed to make a deal or the country would be like Rwanda on his watch.
“Mr President, over 1,000 people are dead. It’s time to make a deal,” he writes. “This was my last play,” Annan continues.
“The game now had to end. We needed an agreement on the transformation of the Kenyan political system. Otherwise, the country would be unable to bear what seemed sure to come.”
Kibaki and Raila signed the deal setting up a coalition government after a month of often bitter negotiations punctuated by riots and ethnic violence around the country.
The two men had come under huge pressure from world powers and Kenyans to find a solution to forestall more bloodshed and help repair the country’s reputation as the region’s business, tourism and transport hub.
Immediately as the word of the deal spread, overjoyed residents danced, sang and ululated in the streets.
Kibaki’s disputed re-election after the 2007 poll triggered protests and tribal clashes that killed at least 1,000 people and forced 300,000 more to flee their homes.
Under the deal, a new prime minister’s position was created for Raila, who sought that role since he first helped elect Kibaki in 2002.
Raila had claimed that the President reneged on an agreement to give him the job after that vote.
Kikwete succeeded in persuading Kibaki and Raila to agree on a 50-50 Cabinet sharing.
The two then signed the documents in a private ceremony before the main event.
Edited by Henry Makori
