Many African leaders guilty of Mugabe sins

Jul 15, 2008

AFRICAN Heads of State and Government converged in Egypt last month and top of the agenda was solving the post election conflict in Zimbabwe. However, according to media reports, President Robert Mugabe overshadowed the summit. Zimbabwe, like any other post colonial state, has been struggling to cor

Phionah Kesaasi

AFRICAN Heads of State and Government converged in Egypt last month and top of the agenda was solving the post election conflict in Zimbabwe. However, according to media reports, President Robert Mugabe overshadowed the summit. Zimbabwe, like any other post colonial state, has been struggling to correct the historical mistakes created by the imperialists like Ian Smith.

The recent calls by Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga will not yield results because his country was on the verge of becoming a failed state had it not been the intervention of Condoleezza Rice, Kofi Anan, Graca Machelle and Desmond Tutu. When John Agyekum Kufuor, the former African Union chairman, came to Nairobi, Moses Wetangula, the Kenyan foreign affairs minister said Kufuor had come for “a tea drinking session.”

Raila’s appeal on African leaders to pressure Mugabe raises many questions; is democracy relevant for one to be a member of the African Union? Could Kibaki be a legitimate president of Kenya?

Is it possible for presidents like Gadaffi, Bashir, Hussein Mubarak to condemn the acts in Zimbabwe yet they have never held elections? As we wait for the conditions to improve in Zimbabwe, we need to assess whether democracy is a panacea for development.

Since independence, most African countries have been grappling with democracy and power retention. But there is hope in some countries like Botswana and Ghana where democratic principles have taken root.

Levi Mwanawasa, the Zambian president, did not get his victory on a silver plate. His closest opponent Michael Chilufya Sata, of the Patriotic Front Party, says he won the election but denied the opportunity by the electoral commission. Mwanawasa says had it not been his ill health in Egypt, he would have been the“right” person to pin Mugabe for undemocratic tendencies.

African leaders should, therefore not impose sanctions on Mugabe otherwise they will be laying their own trap. Few have openly shown their support for Mugabe. Could it be that they afraid of donors? They should find solutions for the continent rather than treat the symptoms.

The writer works with the Uganda Media Centre

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