Odhiambo went on to say that it is with dismay one observes that the current spate of ethnic mobilization against the Waki report and recommendations are done by the political elite who also constitute the interest of their communities. He said that ethnic mobilization is an expression of ethnic rationalization of politics that will ensure that Kenya does not survive as a nation. He called on Kenyans not to allow a few ethnic demagogues to destabilize the country because of their selfish material interests. He cautioned those mentioned in the Waki envelope to stop finding ways of unleashing further violence and cause instability so as to escape personal responsibility for the post-election violence.
Ethnic mobilization is an important national question that often leads to violence and instability. Politicians mobilize ethnic constituencies when they are caught in criminal acts or when they are competing for power so as to advance their ambitions to accumulate wealth. Conflicts over material interests are deceitfully defined as ethnic conflicts. Ethnicity has become a key variable determining access to and accumulation of wealth and, by extension, a key determinant of stability.
The Waki report was handed to the Kenyan Head of State, the Prime Minister on October 15, 2008 and also to Kofi Annan on October 17, 2008.
The report demands that
-an agreement for the establishment of the proposed Special Tribunal be signed by representatives of the parties to the Agreement on National Accord and reconciliation within 60 days
-a Statute is set up for the Special Tribunal to be enacted within 45 days; and within 30 days of Presidential assent to the statute the commencement date for the Tribunal be established.
However Recommendation 5, demands for the automatic involvement of the International Criminal Court in the matter if the Kenyan state does not implement the Special Tribunal in accordance with the timetable provided by Waki.
Fight impunity and safeguard the Kenyan State
CLARION reiterates its firm position that establishing personal responsibility for any crimes committed during the post-election violence is critical to fighting impunity and safeguarding the Kenyan state. It also calls for those mentioned in the report to be accorded an opportunity to be heard as a right which is justice in its most basic conceptualization.
CLARION calls for the implementation of the Waki report for the following reasons:
To deal a blow to impunity manifested through persistent abuse of law and especially abuse of the rights of the poor, corruption and other immoral behavior in public and private spheres
- To establish personal responsibility for criminal behavior and raise the bar in terms of accountability in cases of such behavior recurring in future
- To give opportunity to those named as perpetrators in the Waki Envelop to clear their names in a fair process that will establish their innocence
- To deal a blow to ethnic demagoguery without which our political system will always suffer bouts of debilitating instability and impact negatively on inter-ethnic relations and socio-economic progress
- To deal a blow to the use of violence to settle political conflicts often leading to wanton death, destruction, displacement and destitution
- To lay the foundation for reform of the Kenyan polity and political economy which we have clamoured for the last two decades if not since independence
- To minimize future conflicts especially those framed as ethnic while they harbor and are based on clear elite material interests and competition
- To lay the foundation for uniting Kenyans through reconciliation processes such as the one proposed through the TJRC bill
- To unearth perpetrators of past abuses through the hearings which are certain to, like the Waki report, dwell on some of the past incidents of violence
- To lay the basis for a culture of social justice, respect of human rights and the rule of law which is the only way through which the country may realize equitable and sustainable socio-economic progress.
