DEMOCRACY IS BEING BORN AGAIN IN KENYA

Good news for the Kenyan people.The people have won! The PNU Government and ODM have Agreed to Share Power.

Mr. Mwai Kibaki and Mr. Raila Odinga signed a power-sharing agreement the reports said. The agreement creates the post of PM who will have executive powers, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at the signing ceremony in Nairobi. Talks will continue tomorrow on issues such as land, poverty and constitutional reform, he said. ``Today we have reached an important staging post, but the journey is far from over,'' he said. ``The real challenge is for President Kibaki and the honorable Raila Odinga to work together to heal and reconcile this nation.'' More than 1,000 have died and an estimated 600,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since the violence erupted after a Dec. 27 disputed election. The success of the accord will depend on laws passed in Parliament to implement it, the reports said.``The constitutional amendments will dictate exactly who does what, what the prime minister can do precisely, because right now all we have are principles,'' said the reports. ``Until we have practical answers, we're in a situation in which a small incident can escalate into a large-scale confrontation.''

Under today's agreement, the prime minister will be chosen by the largest party in Parliament, Annan said. That is Odinga's ODM, which won 99 seats in the 222-member assembly. The prime minister and two deputies will be included in the cabinet, he said. ``What this agreement now represents is a distribution of seats, but what is needed is a sustainable end to the crisis,'' Grignon of ICG said in a telephone interview from Nairobi. ``Unless we have a clear program of government, this power- sharing won't hold.'' Parliament will meet on March 6 to begin considering legislation to implement the accord, known as the National Accord and Reconciliation Act, Kibaki said. Both Kibaki and Odinga said at the ceremony that they were committed to making the agreement a success. ``We have began a journey and this journey we will walk together,'' Odinga was reported to have said. ``I can see light at the end of the tunnel.'' Annan led efforts to mediate in the dispute between the two sides with a team that included former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa and Graca Machel, the wife of South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela. ``This process has reminded us that as a nation, there are more issues that unite us instead of divide us,'' Kibaki said. Long live kenya!