THE WAY FORWARD

Fellow Kenyans,

A dark, ugly cloud has been passing over our beloved country for one week, and now I'm worried that its slow motion nightmare is set to go on for a while. There have been many and reasoned voices who've argued that the way forward is for us to enter into a coalition with the Kibaki administration. I don't question the patriotism of such people. I fully understand their desire to see the nation revert to a sense of normalcy so that our children can go back to school, our farmers can be about the business of feeding the nation, and our workers can go back to their jobs. Very admirable.

Where I part ways with my compatriots who think like that is their prescribed solution to this blatant theft that went on a week ago. When the Hon. Odinga is asked to enter an agreement with Mr. Mwai Kibaki, why should he trust a man who has never honored any agreement he's ever entered? And why should he sit down with a man who looked the Kenyans in the eye and and said, "Kenyans, you can all catch a ride to hell?" When you consider Mr. Kibaki's past, you begin to understand why the only condition under which the Hon. Odinga can come to the table with Mr. Kibaki is if a credible international mediator is to preside over it.

At the mediation table, the ODM side must come with a clear way forward. The starting point must be that Mr. Kibaki is in the State House illegally and must come to the negotiation table not as the president, but as a concerned kenyan who wants to find a lasting solution to the crisis the nation is facing. Once that's in place, ODM must move swiftly to place on the table its vision for the future. This is what it must look like:

1. There should be a caretaker government, drawing its membership from both sides. This government will be mandated to set the nation on a path to new elections. The said elections must be held within three to six months.

2. The Electoral Commission of Kenya needs to be disbanded with immediate effect. This agency alone is responsible for the mayhem that's visited Kenya in the last few days. Where Kenyans needed them to be courageous and do the right thing, they allowed themselves to be armtwisted, causing them to announce bogus results. Nobody can trust them anymore. So the starting point in restoring Kenyans faith in the electoral process is to disband the ECK.

3. The elections should be overseen by an independent body and observed by an even larger group of international observers. That will make the results be acceptable to Kenyans, whichever way they go.

4. When the results are eventually announced, all Kenyans must accept them and be ready to move on. We have a nation to build and heal. That task can't be put off for too long.

I call on patriotic Kenyans to embrace this as the way forward. It allows Mr. Kibaki to look magnanimous and it allows the Hon. Odinga to look reasonable and just as concerned.

My fear now is that the sanctity of our electoral process has been gravely undermined by the events of the last few days. We have a chance now to correct this or move into the future facing the shame that other nations have. The stakes are too high for us not to do this right. We are Kenya, my friends. Let's continue to feel proud and get ourselves back on track.

We're Kenya. We can do it!

Sam Okello
President & CEO
Sahel Books Inc.
P.o. Box 6451
South Bend IN, 46660-6451
USA
Phone: Toll Free: 1.877.297.2435
samokello At sahelpublishing dOT net
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