We are paying the price of ignoring Agenda Four reforms, leaders say

The government’s failure to fully implement Agenda Four reforms as recommended by the Kofi Annan team that mediated Kenya’s post-election crisis is the root cause of problems facing the country, leaders and analysts have said.

Among the issues singled out by the Annan committee were land reform, historical injustices and corruption.

Amani Coalition leader Musalia Mudavadi and Senator James Orengo, both members of the Serena team that negotiated the truce that ended the 2007/2008 post-election violence, have accused the government of being uninterested in implementing the reforms laid out in Agenda Four.

Ethnic tension, corruption and the rising cost of living, they say, are attributable to the Jubilee government’s failure to confront the problems head-on and implement Agenda Four reforms.

“The haphazard land reform process has not helped matters; the fighting between the National Land Commission and the ministry will only worsen it. Lack of goodwill is the overriding reason here,” Mr Mudavadi said.

Mr Orengo said Agenda Four could be the recipe for solving most of the challenges the country faces today because of the socio-economic pillars it is pegged on.

“The well-intended land reforms have aborted. The government now thinks it is all about issuing titles.

More alarming is the attempt to amend some of the land laws we fought for to emasculate the National Land Commission.

During the talks, we were all in agreement that institutions are the best guardians of reforms. You do not achieve this by weakening them,” the Siaya senator said.

Mr Mudavadi said the violence in Lamu and the larger coastal region was partly due to the fact that the government does not want to address the root cause, which he attributed in part to inequality.

“In Lamu, people feel they have been forgotten for a long time. People come from the hinterland and easily get land, but this is not the same for the indigenous people.

Even titles issued in Lamu have issues; they must go back and correct some of these things because we hear of cases of people having titles whose numbers do not correspond to the lands allocated to them,” he said.

Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale of the Amani Coalition agreed with his boss.

“What is happening at the coast is largely attributable to historical injustices. The President is sitting on the TJRC report which could solve the problem,” he said.

The Agenda Four issues were the product of the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR) framework meant to address the underlying issues that were seen as the context for the 2007/08 post-election violence.

Under the framework, the government was to ensure constitutional, legal and institutions reforms by tackling youth unemployment and poverty and addressing inequity and regional development imbalances.

Other issues were consolidating national unity and cohesion, and dealing with impunity, while ensuring transparency and accountability in public affairs.

An analysis of Cord’s 13-point agenda issued at their July 7 Uhuru Park rally, according to Ol Jororok MP John Waiganjo, pointed to an extension of the envisaged reforms.

According to Mr Waiganjo, most of the issues that were agreed upon as requiring long-term solutions were put on the back burner as soon as the grand coalition government was put in place.

“Overall, we have not exhausted the Agenda Four items, and perhaps that is why we are seeing a clamour for more to be done. 

The 13-point agenda put forward by Cord are not new issues. We have been with them,” said Mr Waiganjo.

The Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report continues to gather dust on State House shelves. Accusations that the government edited versions of the report to suit some senior officials only served to taint the reputation of a noble initiative that cost taxpayers billions of shillings.
The controversy even saw three foreign commissioners Prof Ron Slye Gertrude Chawatama and Berhanu Dinka refuse to sign the Chapter on Land in the final report.

“They changed the chapter on land which they were not comfortable with,” Mr Orengo said.

Mr Waiganjo argued that land was a sensitive issue that was tied to historical injustices.

But he said that implementing the TJRC report without opening the Ndung’u Land Report may not suffice.

But Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki, a confidante of President Uhuru Kenyatta, dismissed allegations that the TJRC report was edited.

“We are not aware of any editing work done on the report. These are people busy talking in the streets and should not be taken seriously,” he said.

According to Prof Kindiki, anybody telling Kenyans that there is nothing being done to reform the land sector is being insincere.

“The President announced a plan to give out three million titles in the next three years as part of the solution to this problem; we want to give the people secure land tenure across the country,” he said.

In addition, Prof Kindiki said the ongoing digitisation was just one of the moves aimed at cleaning up the Lands ministry.

The accusers, too, claim the government is not keen to renew or establish a successor to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission whose term has lapsed. Recruitment of commissioners to the NCIC is ongoing, but the process has been fraught with delays since the Dr Mzalendo Kibunjia-led team left.

“It is only now that we are recruiting people to the NCIC despite its importance in fostering national cohesion,” said Mr Waiganjo.

Prof Kindiki, however, said the process was well underway.

The vacancies in the offices of commissioners at NCIC and its structural and legal deficiencies have fuelled ethnic animosity.

There is also a lot of hate in cyberspace as Kenyans of all political stripes take one another on in social media.

Law Society of Kenya chair Eric Mutua has no kind words either for Jubilee or the Judiciary. “If implemented in the spirit of national reconciliation, the expected transformation will occur.

The tragedy is that the Executive arm of the government exhibits a lot of laxity. Parliament, and to some extent the Judiciary, has failed to appreciate the fact that Agenda Four is a reality and not a mirage,” he said.

According to Mr Mutua, the government is reluctant to tackle the long-term issues identified by the Serena team because, to them, reconciliation and compensation as recommended in the TJRC report may have serious political implications.

“The mindset in Jubilee is that the appointments in government must be shared between TNA and URP areas and not necessarily all parts of the country,” he said.

“Jubilee is using their tyranny of numbers in Parliament to insulate their pet projects from scrutiny; this is against the spirit of Agenda Four,” Mr Orengo said.

Prof Kindiki disputes this. “Jubilee is an inclusive government, and this is not optional but dictated by the Constitution. Appointments in government reflect the face of Kenya,” he said.

Mr Orengo and Mr Mudavadi who is also the former Deputy Prime Minister also accuse parliament of being used by the administration of President Kenyatta to scuttle Agenda Four.

The same parliament has also changed the law to transfer the function of appointing the Inspector General of Police from the National Police Service Commission to the president.