the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) named six Kenyans as the masterminds of the 2007-2008 post- election violence in the country. On 9 December, on the sidelines
of the Cancun Climate Change talks in Mexico, Odinga demanded that the Ivorian president, Laurent Gbagbo, should step down and hand over power to the man widely acknowledged to have won Côte d’Ivoire’s recent elections, Alassane Ouattara. Odinga’s position was in tandem with that of France, the EU, AU, UN and the USA. Three weeks later, Jean Ping, the chairman of the African Union Commission, appointed Odinga as the AU mediator for Côte d’Ivoire. This appointment lifted Odinga’s
standing locally and internationally, to the chagrin of President Kibaki’s inner circle. Odinga’s shuttle diplomacy resulted in controversy as Gbagbo accused him of siding with Ouattara. Gbagbo’s foreign minister, Alcide Djedje, said that Odinga had “failed in his mission and we are no longer ready to receive him here”. This was followed by an embarrassing
spat between Odinga and Ping at the AU Heads of State and Government Summit in Addis Ababa in late January. The mediation role was a shambles, according to sources in Nairobi and Addis Ababa’s political circles. To Odinga’s opponents, the fumbling in Abidjan was welcome news. Did the AU set up Odinga to fail? Or did
Odinga fail to understand the complexities of Abidjan and the intricate diplomatic minefield within the AU? According to the Namibian president
and the immediate past chairman of the AU, Hifikepunye Pohamba: “Odinga had been sent to Côte d’Ivoire by a lower level of the AU… Now since the report we got from the Kenyan prime minister does not show any positiveness, we felt that we should appoint a panel headed by presidents.” The panel consisted of the presidents
of Mauritania (as chairman), South Africa, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Chad. No-one spoke of Odinga’s efforts and recommendations. The AU went a step further and
changed its stance from forceful intervention in Abidjan to full-scale investigation into electoral malpractices in Côte d’Ivoire. Furthermore, South Africa, Angola and Uganda came out strongly supporting President Gbagbo. Had the AU played into President Kibaki’s hands? While Odinga was fumbling in Côte
d’Ivoire, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was about to pounce. But the ICC was never going to have it easy in Kenya. When its prosecutor, Moreno-Ocampo, revealed the names of the six Kenyans said to “bear the greatest responsibility” for the 2007-
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