afrol News, 1 December - The former UN Chief, Kofi Annan is expected visit to Kenya tomorrow for a series of meetings with President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga and members of civil societies.

Mr Annan is the head of the team that brokered a deal between President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga following the December 2007 disputed election that saw more than 1 500 Kenyans lose their lives.

He will be joined by Graca Machel who is also a member AU Panel of Eminent African Personalities.

Mr Annan who will be in the east African state from 6 to 8 December, is expected to review progress in the implementation of the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR) process.

The mediators will meet members of the civil society, the Clergy, the business community, diplomats and other stakeholders during their Kenya visit.

They will also seek to know the status of reforms under Agenda 4 that includes enactment of a new constitution, land, legal and institutional reforms, reducing poverty, unemployment equity and national cohesion under the long term problems facing the country.

The former UN Secretary-General’s visit to Kenya is being seen by many as a step closer to helping Kenya bring perpetrators of the post election violence to book following last week’s request by the International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo to allow him to start investigations after the Kenyan government refused to hand over the cases to him.

In February, the Kenyan legislators rejected a bill seeking to establish a local tribunal, with MPs arguing that the post election violence suspects should rather be taken to the Hague. The MPs said a local judicial process would be vulnerable to political manipulation and that there would be no protection for witnesses.

In October, Mr Annan, expressed concerns over the sluggish pace of reforms, saying if Kenya would not address the root causes of the 2007 post election violence, it is bound for yet another failure in the 2012 elections.

Kenya's Grand Coalition Government was formed after months of political negotiations chaired by the former UN Secretary General, and a panel of Eminent African Personalities, which sought to put in place, measures to stop future deterioration of security and political stability in Kenya.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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