APRM • SECOND COUNTRY REVIEW REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA 34. In effect, the sitting President Daniel Moi, having been in power since 1978, could now only seek election to the same office only twice and hold office for a maximum of 10 years beginning from 1992. He did win the 1992 and 1997 elections but was barred by law from contesting the 2002 election, an election that the candidate of his ruling Kenyan African National Union (KANU) party lost to his erstwhile vice-president, Mwai Kibaki who ran on the platform of an alliance of opposition parties called the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) to emerge new president in December 2002, thus ending KANU’s 40year dominance of the politics and government of Kenya. President Kibaki was re-elected in 2007 in circumstances that led to civil strife and tested his own political platform. The third president to emerge following the reforms initiated in 1992 is the incumbent, President Uhuru Kenyatta, who contested the 2013 election under the banner of The National Alliance to defeat veteran opposition politician, Raila Odinga, of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). In effect, subsequent developments from 1990 have shown that while the path to meaningful democracy has been tortuous and often painful, the march has been persistent. Thus, the multi-party elections of 1992, 1997 and 2007 were marred by significant interethnic violence often powered also by deep-seated economic grievances, reflecting the tendencies to perceive political parties along ethnic lines. 35. This was the context in which the 2007 election was held. Although initial reports on the election, including voter turn-out were positive, mounting ethnic tension heightened by the 2005 referendum, corruption and the failure in the bid to put in place a new constitution generated political tension that led to political violence as noted above. The post-election crisis underscored the immediate need to pursue constitutional and political reforms more vigorously. The crisis brought out clearly a number of fundamental governance problems in the country, revolving around: 36. • The electoral system, especially the first-past-the post system, with its emphasis on winner-takes-all; • The negative impact of the political mobilization of ethnicity for competitive electoral politics; • Weak separation of power, under an imperial presidency, which saw the diminution of the powers of the legislature, judiciary and independent commissions, such as the electoral commission; and • Lack of accountability in and by the public service and the security forces. The two main political parties, the Party for National Unity (PNU) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), subsequently signed an agreement brokered by Mr Kofi Annan and his team of AU Panel of Eminent African Personalities. Thus, was put together in 2008 a National Accord and Reconciliation Bill and a frame for what became known as National Accord and Reconciliation Agreement (NARA). Under the agreement, the two parties accepted to share power with Mr Mwai Kibaki as President and Mr Raila Odinga as Prime Minister. The parties also agreed to set an agenda for political reforms, including a new Constitution and land reforms, and institute a government of national unity. Specifically, it was agreed to: | 64 |