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Of APRM failing to prevent Kenya from sliding into chaos
2008-04-16 09:35:36
By Alfred Mlangila
Kenya was hailed when it presented its governance assessment report to the Forum of Heads of State participating in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and it was said to be one of the most down to earth documents.
The document did not only point to the nice things Kenya has done towards achieving good governance targets but it also depicted the deficits in the various areas of politics, economy, corporate and socio-economic development.
When making its response to the report, the government of Kenya was honest enough to acknowledge shortfalls in governance that had been pointed out by a wide range of stakeholders from all walks of life.
However, what worries everyone is the fact that Kenya took a plunge into pandemonium only two years after the governance assessment has been done and lauded by experts as one of the best.
Justa Mwaituka`s, the Director of KIWOHEDE, a non-governmental organization dealing with vulnerable children, says it was unbelievable to witness chaos take place in Kenya after all that accomplishment it had acquired on the APRM assessment.
``What does this mean? Is APRM irrelevant in consolidating good governance in Africa?`` she queried, adding that the situation in Kenya had really frustrated her and all peace lovers.
Mwaituka was speaking at a recent APRM sensitization seminar in Arusha referring to a near civil strife that followed after the announcement of election results in Kenya in late December 2007.
Post electoral clashes in Kenya claimed lives of about 1,000 people while hundreds of thousands of other people were displaced and their property destroyed.
It took the expertise of accomplished international peace makers like Kofi Annan to restore tranquility in the country.
Mwaituka`s frustration is also echoed by Mercy Sila who says that Tanzania currently undertaking a governance assessment in the areas of democracy and political governance, economic, corporate governance and socio-economic development needs to borrow a leaf from Kenya.
She says that APRM Tanzania needs to find out what can be done during and after the assessment to avert sliding into bad governance as has been the case of Kenya.
Reacting to the frustration aired by some Tanzanian, Dr. Grace Ongile, the Chief Executive Officer of the NEPAD office in Kenya, says that despite what happened in Kenya, APRM remains the single most important instruments for assessing governance in Africa.
She says that constitutional problems and deficiencies related to the electoral system and laws were clearly pointed out in the Kenyan APRM report and recommendations were drawn to address them.
``Unfortunately such deficiencies were not addressed by the time Kenya held its elections in December 2007,`` she said.
Although Dr. Ongile says non-implementation of the recommendation in the APRM report is not wholly to blame for the Kenyan catastrophe, lots of problems would have been averted if constitutional and electoral problems had been addressed.
Dr. Ongile who coordinated APRM activities in Kenya is of the opinion that a country will only achieve good governance targets if it fully implements the National Program of Action (POA) resulting from the governance assessment.
On his part, Professor Daudi Mukangara, the Executive Secretary of the APRM Tanzania appealed to Tanzanians to not despair by the Kenyan experience, saying the importance of governance assessment cannot be overemphasized.
He applauded the APRM saying it is a peculiar program that gives hope to Africans to reach agreeable codes and standards of good governance.
He says nowhere else in the world have countries drawn such a comprehensive program that allows countries to make self -evaluation and to take the necessary measures.
APRM allows a country to assess itself before it is assessed by peers in matters related to politics, economy, corporate and socio-economic development.
During the assessment, experts and the general public identify pitfalls and draft measures needed to correct shortcomings.
While APRM is responsible for undertaking the assessment, it is the responsibility of the government to carry out the National Plan of Action to address governance problems.
Prof. Mukangara has thus urged government officials to get involved in the assessment to place themselves in a good position when it comes to implementing POA.
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