Nipate
Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: Omollo on October 25, 2014, 08:56:46 PM
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Even the body language says it all. What with Ethiopia threatening to arrest Machar and Uganda backing Salva Kiir while Uhuru is biased against Riek? The entire IGAD is a club like AU which protects the members - i.e. The Dictators. Africa lacks institutions supported by the people. Virtually every pan africanist institution is elitist. To change that:
1. MPs to these organizations should be DIRECTLY elected under Proportional Representation;
2. Decisions taken over there must be subject to referenda where the people get a chance to decide.
Tanzania’s ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), says its recent invitation of South Sudan warring leaders in Arusha did not amount to sabotaging the peace process being pursued by the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (Igad).
CCM secretary-general Abdulrahman Kinana told Sunday Nation on Friday that the meeting between President Salva Kiir, his nemesis Riek Machar and a third faction of political prisoners was organised on the request of Juba.
“We didn’t invite them; that is wrong information.
"It was them who requested us through President Jakaya Kikwete who is the chairman of the Party.
"They wanted to use the good offices of CCM to help bring unity in their party,” he said by phone.
NOT IGAD MEMBER
Tanzania is not a member of Igad and had largely been aloof of the conflict since it broke out on December 15, 2013.
But on Monday, President Kikwete met with the three factions of South Sudan’s main party, SPLM in Arusha even as Igad planned for a mini-summit in Juba on Thursday.
Tanzania belongs to the East African Community (EAC) to which Kenya and Uganda belong. Kenya and Uganda belong to Igad.
The meeting in Arusha meant President Salva Kiir and his nemesis Riek Machar had only met three times since the war began in Juba in December 2013.
But it also raised eyebrows on whether Tanzania was trying to claim credit and in turn interfere with the Igad peace process.
PROCESS COMPLIMENTARY
“In a way, you could say the Arusha process is complimentary. According to mediators, they say the two processes are separate, but they are actually complimentary. I wouldn’t think it is something strange,” Prof Apuuli Kasaija, a specialist on African conflicts, told the Sunday Nation.
“These kinds of talks are even provided for in the cease-fire agreement signed in Addis Ababa (in August).
"They are for addressing the intra-SPLM conflicts” added Prof Kasaija who also teaches at Makerere University.
South Sudan’s Foreign Affairs Spokesman Mawien Makol Ariik told the Nation Tanzania agreed to the meeting to “help them adhere to the Addis Ababa agreement.”
Yet CCM argued it was dealing with the issue at a “party level” not as the government.