APRM • SECOND COUNTRY REVIEW REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA
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End the violence;
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Improve the humanitarian situation;
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Conduct a diagnostic review of the Electoral Commission of Kenya;
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Establish a truth, justice and reconciliation mechanism;
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Review the Constitution within a year; and
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Resolve long-term issues, in particular, land and interethnic inequalities.
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By the end of March 2008, three bodies had been established to implement these
agreements, namely:
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The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission;
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The Commission of Inquiry on Post-Election Violence; and
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The Independent Review Commission on the General Elections.
38.
A new Constitution of Kenya Review Act, 2008 was also passed establishing a Committee
of Experts (CoE) with a 12-month mandate to coordinate the constitutional review process
and prepare a draft to be submitted to referendum. In March 2009, the members of the
CoE comprising six Kenyans and three Africans were sworn in. On 17 November 2009, the
CoE released the draft to the public for comments. Kenyans had 30 days to review the draft
and submit their comments to the CoE. In mid-2010 the two principals appeared to call a
truce, finding common cause in the campaign for the new constitution and, against their
antecedents, outflanking opponents of the unfolding process in their respective parties
and mobilizing the country for a referendum which, at 72% of registered voters, turned
out to be the highest voter turnout in Kenya’s history. The referendum approved the draft
constitution which was promulgated on 27 August 2010.
39.
The power-sharing agreement did not put an end to divisions among parties in the Grand
Coalition Government. The coalition fragmented further in March 2010 after the International
Criminal Court (ICC) allowed its prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, to investigate postelection violence in Kenya. This followed the coalition’s failure to put in place an internal
mechanism in the form of a Special Tribunal to prosecute perpetrators of the post-election
violence as recommended by the Waki Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence.
The start of Ocampo’s investigations widened the breach in the coalition and provoked
further realignments along both political and ethnic lines, principally driven by factional
attempts to protect senior politicians whose ambitions for the 2012 elections appeared
threatened by possible indictments by the ICC.
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