KENYA'S GRAND COALITION 3RD ANNIVERSARY.

Three years ago, on the front steps of Harambee House, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga signed the National Accord ushering the Grand Coalition Government. Three years later, the candle of optimism and hope that swept across Kenya, carrying along with it unbridled expectations that seemed to defy the time and confront political differences of the day is dying. The road to Grand Coalition, propped up by the two claimants to the 2007 shambolic presidential elections, started off with suspicion and hostility between the two principals and their lieutenants. Then after the Cabinet portfolio war, where each side wanted ministries deemed to be strategic and more influential in management of public affairs, there seemed to be developing a working relationship between the two principals. Both used every opportunity to assure the Kenyans and the World they would make the Grand Coalition deliver. But three years later, after the rows by both sides over the 50-50 power sharing and the seat of Executive authority, the picture of the two principals is that of two comrades no longer at ease with each other. However, in language and their dreams of Kenya, they remain ‘comrades’, something that is discernible from the messages of hope for and solidarity with Kenyans they sent yesterday on the eve of the third anniversary of the Accord.Their statements came against the backdrop of disagreements and a public spat over nominations to key Constitutional offices, over which the Constitution and the Accord requires them to ‘consult’. Their messages also had one common denominator; the importance of smooth and full implementation of the Constitution. May be, Kenyans could argue, they agree on the road to take but not the means of getting to the destination.