Kenyans are ready for fresh elections if PNU withdraws from the coalition:

By Miguna Miguna, February 3, 2011

President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) has threatened to walk out of the grand coalition government. That move would automatically lead to the dissolution of the coalition government, precipitating fresh elections.

Both the National Accord and the Constitution provides that if either coalition partner withdraws from the coalition, the government collapses and fresh elections are held, except for county elections that must be held in 2012.

Based on the furious reaction of thousands of Kenyan netters in virtually all blogs, fresh elections might actually be a good way to get rid of the incorrigible, ungrateful electoral thieves and civilian coup plotters whose skins were saved by the National Accord but who have never had the decency to acknowledge that fact.

A coalition government is a partnership of equals. By agreeing to share real power and work together in partnership as equals, both the President and the Prime Minister acknowledged that neither had a mandate to govern alone. Governing together means the President and the PM must make important decisions jointly. Forget about the pedantic quibbling over the definition of words. This coalition government isn’t constructed around words.

On a daily basis, both the President and the PM consult their cabinet, advisers and even family members before, during and after making their decisions. But those consultations aren’t entrenched in the Constitution and the National Accord.

Deliberately, the Constitution and the National Accord expressly provided that the two Principals must consult before making decisions and appointments. The consultation provided therein, requires and involves more than those that the two engage in on a daily basis.

There are people in PNU who are intent on artificially manufacturing conflicts in Kenya. If they are not busy issuing illegitimate orders for the various government functionaries to commit crimes on their behalf; they are busy creating disharmony. These are the same people that subverted democracy, the rule of law and constitutionalism for fifty years.

They trashed the MoU in 2003. They conspired against the Bomas process. They were responsible for the Wako Mongrel in 2005. And in 2007, they nearly destroyed our country through a selfish and brutal civilian coup. Hundreds of thousands of Kenyans died and suffered because of this same group’s criminality and greed.

Now, the same people are busy fermenting both a constitutional and political crisis. They attempted to illegally edit the Constitution so as to insert a provision that could facilitate the execution of another civilian coup.

Some of them lobbed grenades into a religious crusade at Uhuru Park and illegally allocated hundreds of millions of shillings of public resources in order to help the red brigade and watermelons undermine the green campaign.

When Kenyans overwhelmingly voted for the new Constitution, the same retrogressive people have resorted to blackmail, tribal bigotry and ethnic mobilization to achieve their dangerous schemes.

At first, they pretended to support the Constitution. They also expressed support for the ICC process in Kenya, going as far as jointly signing with their ODM counterparts, an undertaking to refer the case to the ICC by September 2009.

Once upon a time, they pretended that they supported the establishment of a credible local judicial mechanism to investigate the international crimes that were committed in Kenya between 2005 and 2009.

When two briefs were presented to the cabinet to authorize the establishment of a credible local tribunal, the same merchants of impunity rallied their forces to “defeat” the matter in cabinet. Then, they didn’t present the dubious argument that executive power vests solely on the President.

But when it suits them, they can unilaterally send emissaries all over Africa, at public expense, to lobby for a “deferral” of the Kenyan situation. That was done without any cabinet approval. The move wasn’t supported by the Prime Minister and the ODM, who are actually senior partners in the coalition.

But as usual, what the merchants of impunity assert in public are deflections; decoys to mislead as to their true intentions and plans. The main objectives are two: save the Ocampo Six and retain power through fraud or by force.

The current constitutional stand-off precipitated by the President’s unilateral and unconstitutional nomination of four persons to key constitutional offices must be seen within this context. Add to that the threat to pull out of the coalition and you have what looks like a cunning way to create both political and constitutional crisis to achieve a criminal objective.

The merchants of impunity are desperate. They are going to do everything possible to escape from justice. Inexplicably, they believe that creating instability – even civil war – will bolster their chances of “convincing” the UN Security Council to grant a deferral. That would give them time and allow the Ocampo Six to execute another civilian coup.

The resolution by Parliament asking the government to unilaterally withdraw from the Rome Statute was a warning shot. But it boomeranged badly.

Next was the deferral ploy, which both the IGAD and AU bought. Luckily, they know that sooner rather than later, that mission will also fail. They know in March, the Pre-Trial Chamber will decide whether to confirm the charges or not. The fear isthat the Ocampo Six will be indicted. Once that happens, the game will be over. The KKK chauvinistic schemes and their 2012 civilian coup will be fatally imperiled.

That’s why there is so much desperation that they are ready to burn down the country in order to save their necks. They hope that the UN Security Council would consider their application much more seriously when Kenya is on fire.

Let’s call their bluff. Ultimately, the Majestic People of Kenya, like the Tunisians, are waiting to teach them a lesson!

Miguna is the PM’s advisor on Coalition Affairs. The views expressed here are his own.