Scholar Assesses Kenya Politics

I think it is an important event and one that shows achievable results through concerted efforts of the international community, especially by regional leaders. It is not the first time, though. Recent dialogues in Timor Leste have had a similar pattern. My only hesitation to mark it as a benchmark for others is that there are peculiar factors that made this possible in Kenya. First, few countries can command the sustained attention Kenya received -- a regional economic anchor whose economy is twice the size of its two neighbors and whose hiccups already started to choke neighboring economies, making the crisis everyone's business overnight. Countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia could command no such attention. Second, the level of armaments that fed the political and ethnic violence were very rudimentary and meant that at no point was the state itself in danger of collapse. Once things collapse or the incumbent government is unable to hold onto power, dialogue is simply overtaken by maximalist pursuits by politicians. So yes, this is a useful model, but likely to work in only a handful of countries and only when the situation is addressed at the very beginning.