Kenya as Model?

It would have seemed absurd to have suggested as much nine months ago, but could Kenya end up providing something of a model for post-conflict resolution? The country provides an outlier of a test case, to be sure. The country had achieved hard-won stability that already had people pointing to it as a seemingly shining example of political development when the country unexpectedly convulsed in post-election violence at the turn of the new year. Since then, Kenya's leaders and population have recobbled together civil society, the conflicting sides have warily worked to form a unity government, and that government has passed virtually all of the tests placed before it.

Increasingly the leaders who fomented violence in the wake of the elections in December have found that they are not immune to being held to account for their roles. The latest example comes with the revelation that the names of a number of figures whose names had been held out of the final report issued by the Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence, headed by Court of Appeal judge Philip Waki, had been placed in a sealed envelope along with the evidence against them. That evidence has been given to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. In turn the individuals named, prominent politicians with national reputations, including cabinet ministers, will likely either face a special international tribunal set to be named within 60 days or, if that cannot be accomplished in time, the International Court of Justice at the Hague will likely step in and prosecute the accused for their part in enabling and promoting the chaos that devastated the country.

there are times when retributive justice is simply not viable. The prime example of this is in post-Apartheid South Africa when the prospects for reconciliation hinged on creating a mechanism whereby participation in a larger process was necessary even if that meant that the guilty might walk. But in Kenya the crimes are precise, did not take place over several decades, and as much as the country appeared to have been torm asunder, Kenya's fractures did not compare to those of South Africa. It also makes a significant difference that South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation process was necessary part of the process to get the white minority in power, embodied in the National Perty, to accede to giving up power without further resort to raising arms.

Kenya's peace is still tenuous. But the country appears to be pointed in the right direction. Buried within the tragedy of December and January might be lessons for the future not only of the continent, but also the region.