Monday, 07 January 2008

Prof. Ali Mazrui suggests possible options to end the impasse

Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143980051&cid=4

By David Ohito

Renowned scholar, Prof Ali Mazrui, proposes a fresh presidential poll supervised by international organisations or power sharing to resolve the leadership stalemate.

He said Presidential elections were a major setback to stability and democratisation, which had to be resolved to salvage Kenya from becoming a failed State.

"A possible solution would be for the African Union to appoint an independent commission of inquiry into the management of the presidential election, and make recommendations," Mazrui said in a press statement sent to The Standard.

"One possible recommendation would conceivably be to accept the parliamentary results, which had, by most estimates, been transparent and credible. But there might be new internationally supervised presidential elections with the three main candidates on the ballot," Mazrui said.

He proposed solutions Kenya should embrace in search of peace, including a recount of votes.

"It is imperative for President Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga to enter into urgent negotiations to find a solution to this painful impasse, and to help the process of national healing," he said.

Mazrui proposed revising the Constitution to allow for the creation of a prime minister’s post.

"The third option is probably the easiest to accomplish. The new Parliament should be sworn in and called into session. Its first task should be to consider a constitutional amendment creating the post of prime minister answerable to Parliament and not to the Chief Executive (the President). If the constitutional amendment is passed, Parliament would then vote for the first prime minister," he said.

He added: "Considering the balance of political parties voted into parliament, the new prime minister is almost bound to be Raila."

"Kenya would borrow from the French model, with both an executive President accountable directly to the people and an executive prime minister accountable to the people’s legislative representatives - Parliament," he noted.

He said as is the case in France, the President and the prime minister would have to find ways of working together in the interest of the people.

1 comment:

Shiundu said...

Hi Kidali,
I agree you are posting serious videos. Well it has happened. But about Mazrui, how practical are the solutions unless of course some force from out comes in there.
And then again, now that Kufuor is coming, what happens if he says KIbaki out. It is a possibility: he told Nkunda in DRC to say 'Kabila Tosha', he might just say "Kibaki Toka". You wait and see.
Otherwise keep up the splendid job. Cheers.