Civil society members, under the banner Kenyans for Peace With Truth and Justice and The National Civil Society Congress are calling upon all partners, regional and international to desist from doing “business as usual” with Kenya and further force the protagonists in the post poll violence to focus on the mediation process as the most urgent order of business.

The members rejected the presence of IGAD foreign ministers in Kenya at the time and the planned holding of the East Africa Community Summit saying it will detract the world from “our national focus on the Panel of Eminent Africans mediation process.”

The Civil Society Congress in a statement read by AfriCog Executive Director, Ms. Gladwell Otieno condemned what they described as a pattern of disrespect towards and slighting of international partners –including the African Union and President John Kuffuor which they said manifested itself again with the rejection of Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa

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The KPJT and NCSC expressed their concern over reports that the hotel room of Mr. Kofi Annan was bugged and demanded that the situation be investigated and those responsible be dismissed and punished.

The group noted that the mediation agenda seemed to rotate around the dispute between two contending political sides. This they said failed to account for the voting and non-voting citizen who ultimately will be affected by the resolutions of the process. “The Kenyan people must have ownership of the process and it must be accountable to them.” Said Mr. Hassan Omar of the Kenya National Human rights Commission.

The lobby groups supported the call contained in the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation documents and called upon the immediate restoration of the fundamental rights and freedoms of Kenyans.

The groups noted that in the past, two members of parliament from one side of the political divide have been murdered in suspicious circumstances and demanded the speedy and conclusive clarification of those crimes and cautioned members from the mediation parties from making highly inflammatory and unacceptable statements which they said “trespass on the mediation agenda and undermine the prospects of successful mediation with truth and justice.”  

The two groups recommended that the foundation principles of the mediation process be clarified and rules of the process be transparently spelt out engagement rules as well as attending sanctions in cases where parties are determined to be in violation of those rules and further that the outcomes of the process be constitutionally embedded to ensure that it is binding enforceable and does not suffer interference from competing political interests or challenges to its legitimacy or legality.

KPTJ also recommends that the mediation process address all forms of violence that have manifested themselves through the political crisis and deal with the context which has precipitated the crisis.

The briefing was also attended by Njeri Kabeberi, (Center for Multi party Democracy), Milly Adhiambo (CRADLE) and politician Ann Njogu. The statement titled “Preliminary Response to the Mediation Process in Kenya” was signed by a host of 36 civil society organisations.