Here is Jérémy's summary of his oral presentation.
- Kenya's opposition leaders called for 3 days of nationwide protests this week and recommended foreign governments to impose sanctions over the country's flawed elections last month. The elections resulted in killings, destructions and travel restrictions. Let's take a look at what happened.
Kenya is divided into several tribes. Mr Kibaki, the former president, belongs to the Kikuyu tribe whereas his opponent Mr Odinga belongs to the Luo tribe. Kibaki's party has governed the country since its independence in 1963, but according to the polls Mr Odinga was very likely to win these elections.
However, the vote-counting process was slowed down, and apparently the election commission hadn't been operating independently. With half of votes counted Odinga led with 57 percent and Kibaki had only 39 percent. Odinga's party accused Kibaki of cheating and it turns out that it's true. Indeed 3 areas appear suspicious. For instance, in one of them Kibaki received 105,000 votes even though there were only 70,000 registered voters. Kibaki eventually won the elections.
The opposition called for new elections, but Kibaki's party refused. The tension between the tribes is growing. About 600 people have been killed so far. Kofi Annan, the former United Nations Secretary General, has agreed to lead a panel of African dignitaries to help find a political solution. The government has banned all political rallies and live news media coverage of election related events. Opposition leaders have called for the rallies to be peaceful, but most major protests have degenerated into bloodshed.
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To my mind, the situation in Kenya is now so difficult that Koffi Annan's coming will be insufficient to resolve it.
The most striking point in this event is to see that a stable country like Kenya could become very unsafety because of flawed elections. It is very outrageous to count the number of victims of ethnic tensions which have already happened after the controversial reelection of president Kibaki.
However, I think it isn't a solution to organize a new election, because the context is too difficult and it seems to me that new elections won't succeed in the return of a quiet situation. The only case where new elections could be useful may be an election with two others candidates in places of Kibaki and Odinga, but it is not a certainty and remains difficult to envisage.
To conclude, I think that international community must apply sanctions in Kenya in the measure that it is inacceptable to flaw election's results. Then, people in the world, particulary Africa and Kenya, must wish that a new stable situation could be known in this country in time.
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