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It is the season of EAC former presidents to broker peace deals

Saturday November 05 2022
Uhuru Kenyatta and Evariste Ndayishimiye

Former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta (left) shakes hands with the Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye in Bujumbura on November 4, 2022 after talks on the current security situation in eastern DRC. PHOTO | TCHANDROU NITANGA | AFP

By Charles Onyango-Obbo

A peace deal was reached Wednesday in the Ethiopian civil war, with both sides agreeing to end two years of fighting in drawn-out talks between the two sides in South Africa.

It was heavy lifting. It took many African heavyweights to get the Ethiopian government and Tigray rebels to agree to silence their guns — for now, at least.

The talks were facilitated by the African Union and mediated by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, former Kenya president Uhuru Kenyatta, and South Africa's former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Obasanjo has been to this mediation rodeo many times; while in he was in office and since he left it in May 2007.

Uhuru had his hands full with the South Sudan war and dipped a toe in both the Ethiopian civil war, and the seemingly never-ending conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo until he left office in September. This was his first peace-making undertaking in which he didn't arrive with the trappings of power — the presidential jet, the big man's convoy, and flags on his car.

Brokering peace easier

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When you are president, brokering peace is easier. You can bribe the combatants; offer the rebel leader and his family asylum and maintenance, give assurances that you will ensure your "brother leader" doesn't murder him, and give your fellow president a deal — something like allowing him to import arms freely through your port if he heads a landlocked country.

When you are a former president, the job is more challenging. You have little to offer except charm and your legacy authority.

It is why, even if the Americans and others were also involved, the achievement of the "Troika of negotiators", as AU Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat calls them, is notable. It's even more so, considering Ethiopians are some of the most stubborn Africans.

Vocation of former leaders

This peace business — and electioneering — seems to be the vocation of former East African Community leaders.

Burundi's former president Pierre Buyoya, though he wasn't a particularly peace-loving man while in office, still seemed to do quite well as African Union peace envoy to Chad and Mali.

Former Tanzanian president Ben Mkapa also put in peacetime and was one of the key figures in helping the violence and crafting a power-sharing after Kenyans killed themselves over the December 2007 election.

Former Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete has cornered the election monitoring gig. If he is not heading some Commonwealth Observer mission, he is leading one for the East African Community.

Both Kenya's former and since-deceased presidents, Daniel Arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, put in some peacetime while in State House. A few regional warriors called on Moi early in his retirement, but not Kibaki. He was not one to get into other people's business if his job didn't require it.

All this makes former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila a very odd man out. Still young and energetic, Kabila has rarely been seen outside his country. Occasionally a video of him dancing in a club in Kinshasa will pop up on social media, but little else. He seems content to groom his beard.

This is surprising because he didn't grow up in a remote village in DR Congo. He is a child of Tanzania and Uganda. He is as East African as they come.


Charles Onyango-Obbo is a journalist, writer, and curator of the "Wall of Great Africans". Twitter@cobbo3

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