We’ve now had a week to digest the surprise joint announcement by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga. Both referred to — repeatedly — as “His Excellency” in the said announcement, signalling that the announcement came from a meeting of equals.

In a way, we’ve seen this before. In some critical ways, however, we haven’t.

In 2008, it took Kofi Annan’s — accompanied by Benjamin Mkapa and Jakaya Kikwete — closed-door talks with Mwai Kibaki and Odinga to seal the deal over the disputed presidential election of 2007.

In the case of Uhuru and Raila’s “deal,” the brokers and mediators are unknown.

In 2008, it was evident that a power-sharing agreement was the end game, not just for Kibaki and Odinga, but for the political blocks they represented, and the issues were transitional justice, accountability and reform agenda.

Today, not only is there no power-sharing agreement, there’s just a listing of the problems we already know we have, and nothing to address them beyond a statement that everything possible will be done to serve all Kenyans equally.

The elections of last year were dismissed because our biggest problems are disrespect, the lack of a national ethos and “real and imagined exclusion” that leads to “ethnic antagonism” and “divisive political competition.”

No wonder Kenyans are confused. There have been angry, furious even, salvos from Odinga’s National Super Alliance (Nasa) supporters, both for and against the “deal.”

At times like this, we must be grateful for Kenyan humour. The funniest response I saw was a Tweet: “So Brookside or no Brookside?” #AskingForAFriend. This is in reference to the product boycott called by Nasa as part of public resistance against the Jubilee government.

I laughed out loud. It was a clever and pithy way of asking, what next?

I have to say, I’m not one of those that breathed a secret sigh of relief following the Uhuru and Raila pact. Although I understand why many did.

We can admire Odinga for his ability to do the unexpected, even if it shocks us, but the outcome of this remains to be seen.

Raila led the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) into the Kenya African National Union (Kanu, Kenya’s Independence party), then eviscerated it from within, enabling the so-called “transition” of 2002 that brought Kibaki to power.

On the other hand, this may be just the manoeuvring ahead of the 2022 elections.

Then again, Odinga has not trooped over to Jubilee in the same way that LDP trooped over to Kanu, but the rest of the Nasa principals seem as confused as their supporters.

Beyond speculation, breathing a sigh of relief is far from fixing our economic challenges. We are in unchartered territory. The announcement was just that — an announcement.

Once again, it’ll be up to civil society to ask the necessary questions about what happened to our vote, accountability for the same, as well as for all those killed, maimed and robbed by the security services in the so-called “opposition” zones.

No popping of champagne for me any time soon.

L. Muthoni Wanyeki is the Africa director of the Open Society Foundations. E-mail: [email protected]