finally, a deal

Quick update from work: cancel the hysterics. Yesterday, Odinga and Kibaki signed a power-sharing agreement allowing for the creation of three new positions, an executive prime minister (which will be Odinga), and two deputy prime ministers, one from each side of the coalition. It's not entirely clear to me what role the Prime Minister will play in parliament -- the newspaper tells me that the PM will "co-ordinate and supervise the affairs of the Government", which is pretty vague. But it's a very positive first step towards peace and reconciliation. Now the hard work begins. I'm sure that Kenya will drop out of international headlines now that an agreement has been reached, although this is where it really gets interesting. Constitutional reform just doesn't sell papers as well as church burning.

Parliament reconvenes next week, on March 6th. I'm anxious to see whether both sides will abide by the conditions of the agreement, and how effective they will be working as a coalition. It is now time to address the issues of widespread poverty, gross political and economic inequality and tribalism. Time to address the needs of the displaced, of the kids who have been missing school for weeks on end or who have lost their families. Time to implement free secondary school education. Time to sort out land rights issues. The cynic in me says that not much of this will come to pass, but at the very least, this is a good opportunity to push for desperately needed changes. This country will take years to recover from the upheaval, so it is crucial to build a stable basis from which that healing can take place.

Oh, and Nairobi has a mayor now too -- the ODM councillor, Geoffry Majiwa, was sworn in after he reached a power-sharing agreement with the PNU councillor on Wednesday. It seems that cooperation is now in vogue.