ZIMBABWE opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was in Nairobi this week to compare notes with the Prime Minister. It was a logical stopover, considering the parallel between our grand coalition with what he is trying to negotiate with President Robert Mugabe. The Zimbabwe power-sharing talks, mediated by South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, have reached an impasse. It all boils down to one thing: will Tsvangirai get executive powers or won't he?
Until now, Tsvangirai has held out for full executive authority. Mugabe has rejected this outright. Quite plainly, he is not the kind of person who will ever agree to become ceremonial.
Mbeki somehow understands this, as do most regional heads of state. I suspect they have concluded that Tsvangirai can be convinced to accept a Kenyan-type compromise; the real issue is likely how to sell it to Mugabe.
As things stand, it would probably work out best if Tsvangirai went for the most he can wrest from the Mbeki-mediated talks and avoid playing zero-sum games. Therein is the lesson to learn from Kenya.
The question of whether Mr Odinga's office can be described as 'executive' can be debated the whole day long. But what the Prime Minister has done is to take a fairly amorphous docket and work hard into making something out of it.
He is doing this incrementally, first testing his room for manoeuvre by pushing a few ministers here, the judiciary there, while carefully avoiding a frontal collision with where the real seat of executive power lies.
He will be quite happy announcing changes at the Kilindini port but will avoid stepping into the territory of the likes of Security Minister George Saitoti. Or why else did he resort to a public appeal for the release of post-election violence perpetrators if he has the authority to have them freed?
As of last week, Parliament was proposing to allow him a weekly slot he has long cherished called Prime Minister's Question Time. It is not quite an executive function, but it expands the visibility the Prime Minister has been seeking.
No one, however, should mistake Robert Mugabe for Mwai Kibaki. That is where the first parallelswith the Kenyan experiment starts getting fuzzy.
The kind of leeway Mr Odinga has been able to extract is almost certainly inconceivable in the context of a power-sharing deal between Tsvangirai and Mugabe.
Added to this is the pure bad blood between the two Zimbabwean protagonists.
Relations between the Kenyan principals are far less nasty, though it is foolhardy to pretend there is much trust there.
Mugabe is a no-nonsense operator who would never brook the lawless disorder we saw in January, irrespective of whether he caused it himself.
Tsvangirai knew instinctively that there would have been very serious consequences if their party were linked to the kind of violence we saw here in Kenya. God forbid if such violence had been directed at Mugabe's supporters.
For someone who supposedly held the reigns of state power, the post-election displacements and bloddletting in Kenya were something that severely tarnished President Kibaki's prestige.
In any case the only thing that forced Mugabe to talk is Zimbabwe's economic meltdown (amid crazy hyperinflation of two million per cent) and the hope that an agreement will result in an easing of Western sanctions and re-open doors to normal investment.
Despite all, Zimbabwe's military, paramilitary, intelligence and police commanders are solidly behind Mugabe. So is the ruling Zanu-PF party. The divisions Tsvangirai sees there are mainly procedural, not doctrinal.
The party's top powerbrokers uniformly detest him. Most ominous is the early declaration by the military that it would never take orders from a "Western puppet." (Here is one regime where perceived puppets, traitors, snitches and homosexuals have traditionally been given very short shrift).
Given their differences, Mugabe's concession - in principle - to share power with Tsvangirai constitutes a considerably greater loss of face than it was for President Kibaki.
That is why Mbeki opts to defer to Mugabe despite Tsvangirai's protests. The manner in which Kofi Annan choose to deal with President Kibaki was altogether different.
Talking of Zimbabwe, swimmer Kirsty Coventry has set an Olympic record no other athlete representing Africa has ever achieved.
She becomes the first Olympian from the continent to win the most medals (one gold, three silver) at a single Olympiad. Her four medals were the entire haul Zimbabwe won in Beijing. Now, there is a lady who deserves kudos.
mambo lewanika II • n/a Subject: Tsvangirai & the Constitution Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:54:29 • Apart from voting Mugabe into office Tsvangirai appears not to have the least knowledge of the Zimbabwean Constitution and the related electoral laws. Why is ZANU PF wasting money and time negotiating with people who decided not to contest.
DREADS • na. Subject: FASCINATING STUFF... Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:07:10 • BBC News Updated every minute of every day One-Minute World News 20th August, 2008.
News Front Page
Kenyan PM welcomes ex-graft chief
John Githongo had fled after receiving death threats
Kenya's prime minister has welcomed former anti-corruption chief John Githongo home after three years of self-imposed exile.
Raila Odinga held talks with the ex anti-graft investigator, who is in Kenya for a brief visit.
Mr Githongo fled to the UK saying he feared for his life, after accusing senior members of the government of massive looting.
He is also expected to give a speech at a public anti-corruption forum.
In an interview before he left the UK, he told the BBC he was no longer afraid for his life. He said Kenya had changed significantly over the past few months.
Mr Githongo was appointed to oversee the fight against graft after President Mwai Kibaki came to power in 2002.
He exposed a scam in which state contracts worth more than $1bn (£0.5bn) were secretly awarded to phantom firms.
'Fragile situation'
The BBC's Peter Greste in the capital, Nairobi, says Mr Githongo's return from exile is a sign of changing times in Kenya.
Now more than ever, these issues of transparency and accountability are going to affect the way Kenyans view their government
John Githongo
After his meeting with the prime minister, Mr Githongo said that Kenya had gone through a difficult time after the December elections.
We have what is actually a fragile situation and corruption can upset it, he said.
Now more than ever, these issues of transparency and accountability in the conduct of public affairs are going to affect the way Kenyans view their government and its performance and therefore will a major political impact.
Mr Odinga said that the country would like to deal with its past in a much more transparent and fair manner.
Our correspondent says corruption remains deeply embedded in the Kenyan government and public institutions.
CLARABELLA, MANCHESTER • na. Subject: wot is in a name? Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:25:40 • Remember to utter the name Kirsty reverently if you are talking to any Zimbabwean! This snip of a girl has done more for Zimbabwe in bringing the nation together than any other sports person. We are all so extremely proud of her.
She does her job and gets on with it - thus she achieves because, as she has told reporters, politics are not her bag.
If Olonga and others had focused on their sport instead wearing black arm bands etc they too would there on Zimbabwe's gold podium with her, and we too, in turn, would be extremely proud of them and you would hear an entire nation uttering their names with reverence.
But, sadly not so now.
n/a • n/a Subject: n/a Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:00:44 • You conveniently neglect to mention that the criminals that Odinga is trying to get released are his own thugs who were responsible for some of the violence in Kenya. You pretend all the perpertrators were Kibaki's people.In the same way, you pretend that Tsvangirai's people were not responsible for violence in Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai single-handedly voted Mugabe into power by boycotting elections. If anyone should be given ceremonial powers in Zimababwe, it should be Tsvangirayi. On what basis does he want to be made all-powerful?
The problem for people like Tsvangirayi and Odinga is that they are not themselves. They are stooges acting on behalf of others.
Having said that, my criticism of Tsvangirai or Odinga is not an endorsement of Mugabe or Kibaki (as stooges may choose to think).
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