The agreement signed on Wednesday between President Kibaki and Opposition leader Raila Odinga reinforces the adage that behind every cloud, there is a silver lining.

Just a few days ago, it was all gloom and foreboding with indications that the talks aimed at pulling Kenya back from anarchy were on the verge of collapse.

In a nutshell, the agreement allows for a coalition and creation of an office of Prime Minister who will exercise considerable powers co-ordinating the functions of a unitary government.

The PM will not be a mere presidential appointee but will come from the party holding a majority in Parliament, suggesting ODM. The holder of the office, together with two deputies, one from each side of the coalition, will have constitutional protection.

It is also specified in the agreement that the Cabinet will be made up with recognition of parity in Parliament between the two sides, and in addition, appointment and removals from the Cabinet can only be done in consultation with all parties to the coalition.

In their speeches on Wednesday, both President Kibaki and Mr Odinga were very conciliatory, and it was indeed evident that each of them fully understood the danger Kenya faced if they remained obdurate.

Signing that deal, along with the concessions each, stands as a true mark of leadership and patriotism.

But now the deal must go beyond mere signatures to actualisation.

And this is why it remains very important that President Kibaki and Mr Odinga continue to display leadership which will be necessary in guiding Parliament to do the right thing.

It would be a real tragedy and betrayal if an agreement that holds so much hope for the restoration of peace and stability was to be sabotaged by a Parliament that might still have its share of hardliners and obstructionists on both sides.

The message must go out clearly and unequivocally from President Kibaki and Mr Odinga to all their respective MPs that absolutely nothing must be done in Parliament that would delay or obstruct passage of the relevant amendment Bills.

It must also be clear to the negotiating teams from both sides and others working on the necessary legislation, that the time for stalling, digging-in, grandstanding and making demands is over.

Partisan interests

Kenyans who have witnessed death and destruction on a scale they could not have imagined demand speedy implementation of the agreement, starting with the necessary legislation, to the actual formation of the coalition, another process that again must not be derailed by petty shoving or made hostage to selfish and partisan interests.

All must realise that the signing of the agreement on Wednesday is but the first step in what will be a long and delicate process. The formation of a coalition government is merely the minimum requirement for the more difficult work to follow.

The real return to peace and stability will be realised, not just with a coalition government, but with the next agenda item on the negotiations that includes comprehensive constitutional review, focusing very much on sensitive issues such as devolution, land reform, ethnic relations and establishment of a just and equitable society.

Many of those are issues we have preferred not to address since independence in the hope that they would solve themselves.

The post-election violence that threatened to send Kenya hurtling down the precipice indicated that we may have all along been living in a fools’ paradise.

The events of the past two months opened our eyes to the realisation that we can no longer continue to sweep under the carpet pressing national issues.

Now we have no choice but to confront them and to find solutions that are satisfactory to all groups in the country.

In another development, Kenya’s neighbours have been asked to put more pressure on President Kibaki’s government to cede ground and facilitate a lasting political settlement to the country’s crisis, Britain’s leading financial newspaper says.

The Financial Times says: “Pressure from the US and Europe has undoubtedly helped to prevent negotiations from breaking down. But it is doubtful that in itself will secure a lasting deal.

African countries

“More is needed from neighbouring African countries, whose strategic interests in Kenya’s survival are even greater, and whose involvement is harder to pass off as neo-imperialist.”

The problem, the paper says, is that while Kenya “reaps the consequences of violence stirred up by politicians, Mr Kibaki and cohorts are digging in, determined to resist the medicine long prescribed.”

Elsewhere, the European Union and its member states vowed yesterday not to conduct business as usual in the country until a solution is found.

Members of the Council of the European Union at the same time threatened to take action on leaders bent on obstructing the Annan-led mediation talks or those encouraging violence in the country.

“They will have to face the consequences.”

Additional reporting by Paul Redfern and Dave Opiyo

The National Humanitarian Fund for Mitigation of Effects and Resettlement of Victims of Post-2007 Election Violence is now open to donations from all Kenyans of goodwill.

Don’t let the long title intimidate you. If you wade through the first seven words, you will find that they simply mean a disaster fund for those affected by the poll violence.

The fund kicks off with a Sh1 billion down payment by the Government. And, as one newspaper put it, “the fund is expected to grow after an appeal in the face of resource constraints...”

Now, that is something we can relate to. Resource constraints have become a way of life for more Kenyans than we care to count. Even people living beyond our borders can feel the effect. The question is: do the people who are driving this country to the edge of sanity care?

Money has always been a problem for us, especially when we throw politics into the mix. It is not just the fact that we pay our politicians huge salaries for causing us no end of trouble and bloodshed. We fight when we have it. We fight when we do not. And we are very creative when it comes to finding ways to spend it.

ONLY A MONTH OR SO AGO, THIS country was awash with posters, huge spending on billboards and a massive assault on our senses in both print and electronic media. The political parties spent billions trying to win us over to their side. We were inspired, and the turnout was more than even the most optimistic of pundits could have anticipated.

The result speaks for itself. And now we are being asked to pay for the sins of our leaders — literally with our lives, and also by digging deeper into our pockets to deal with the mess they created.

At the last count, more than 800 people had died and another 300,000 had been displaced. Millions others have been mentally and emotionally displaced and they no longer know what to make of the day’s developments. It is just the kind of environment that allows the devil to do his dirty work, and now it is two ODM Members of Parliament dead.

Statistics are dry at the best of times. They don’t tell the full story. These numbers represent a huge personal crisis. The people involved need food, clothing, medicine, blankets, baby formula, sanitary towels and somewhere to sleep.

There is no privacy for the people who have found themselves on the wrong side of the marauding gangs that rule the most affected parts of the country. They don’t have the comfort of knowing that, at the end of the day, they will be going home in one piece. None of us can be certain any more that we will.

A few hard questions come to mind: How do we mitigate the effects of the emotional falling out that Kenya is experiencing right now? What is the price of a human life? How do you tell an orphaned child that she will experience great hardship in life because her parents were burnt to death for belonging to a particular ethnic group?

Make donations to the fund, by all means. You will be easing the physical suffering of the afflicted. Even though we rarely use the word these days, harambee was one of the pillars of the Kenya we once dreamt of. The founders of this nation even spoke of something called African socialism and produced a sessional paper to make it official. And promptly forgot all about it, whatever it meant.

But we will have to think beyond money and other material needs if we are to deal once and for all with the violence we are seeing now. It has been coming for a long time. The link between money and the total collapse of conscience among our political leaders has been long established.

Bad politics will inevitably breed bloodshed. Throw money into the mix, and there’ll be hell to pay. So there’s tension in the teaching ranks and the election is just around the corner? Give them a juicy pay raise, but let it be known that it is only effective after the election. That way you get to keep them on a leash.

So the community next door is feeling that “one of their own” is not in a high level government position? Well, give a slew of them the shadowy title of assistant minister. That will take care of the shared national resources issue, never mind that they don’t really do any serious work and that they will not be sharing their pay with their constituents. Hell, no!

AS FOR FREE EDUCATION, AN ELECTION is hardly the right time to refer to the small print to do with class sizes and all the extra costs that come with children going to school.

Are the long suffering people up in the north complaining about “development” not reaching them? A handful of boreholes should do the trick. Better still, transfer some bulldozers to the district headquarters — and keep them there until after things have gone quiet. That way, they will not be asking how life is down there in Kenya.

You can find your own local examples of how cash has corrupted our politics.

Right now, though, all of our eyes should be focused on the two men at the centre of the crisis. Now that the Annan team has them talking, they might consider speaking directly with Kenyans, who have been reduced to collateral damage in their fight for supremacy. Let Mr Mwai Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga go to Uhuru Park and jointly address this nation if they are truly committed to that mitigating business. There is not enough money in Kenya to pay for a human life.

Story by LUCY ORIANG' ( Daily Nation)