'We have a deal'

With those words Kofi Annan announced that Kenya's leaders had agreed today to share power in a coalition government.

I watched through a phalanx of TV cameras as President Kibaki and Raila Odinga said they were committed to making the arrangement work. Each man had warm words for the other. Raila even called Kibaki "President" -- a first since the election.

Lots of details are unknown: is Kibaki going to keep his word, are he and Raila going to work together as they say, and how will this help hundreds of thousands of people get their homes back? The slim, two-page agreement the men spent several moments signing this afternoon raises more questions than it answers.

Just as the two men finished the last round of hand-shaking, some spontaneous dancing broke out in a plaza a few hundred yards from where we were standing. A few of them sang, "Raila rule Kenya!" It was a joyous moment.

But only a moment. Police on horseback immediately appeared and lobbed several cannisters of tear gas. They fired some shots in the air as smoke from the cannisters wafted over the well-dressed crowd of dignitaries still milling around the signing ceremony. The crowd dispersed. I turned to someone and asked, "They won't let people enjoy this for even five seconds?"

Don't celebrate too much, folks. The politicians have a lot more work ahead.

Comments

[Boylan]

Hopefully this is more then symbolic