Six months after the events which greeted President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election victory, a deepening disagreement on the issue of amnesty for suspects of the post-election violence is stalling the progress of Kenya’s road to peace. From Nairobi Daniel Ooko analyses the current political glitches.

While all is now calm on the ground, the Kenyan authorities are still struggling to fully comply with all the issues on the roadmap to peace brokered by the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, which ushered in the current power-sharing government. One of the most contentious issues is what should happen to suspected instigators of the post-election violence that left over 1,000 people dead at the beginning of this year.

President Mwai Kibaki’s former opponent, Raila Odinga, of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), who is now the prime minister under the power-sharing government, wants all suspects currently in custody released unconditionally, while Kibaki says they should be tried and the courts allowed to decide whether or not to convict them.
 
Kibaki’s argument has found favour in the country’s diplomatic community. However, Odinga insists that those who poured into the streets to voice their opposition to a “rigged election” committed no crime and should be freed.