A BRIEF HISTORY OF COALITION GOVERNMENTS.

Germany.

This has been touted as a success story in coalition Governments. Last week, the
negotiators in Kenya were treated to a talk on how the German coalition model has
worked. The critical factor in the German model has been that coalitions are
discussed and forged before elections because all the parties agree that there is
no single party capable of forming Government on its own. This fact ensures that a
coalition is likely to survive.

Belgium.

This has also been a touted model. However, in 2007, after spending over five
months discussing how to form a Government, serious cracks emerged in the
coalition. The coalition here is made up of two large groups, the Flemish speakers
(60%) and the French speakers (40%). Right now, the Flemish side has been
undermining their French opponents to the point where a division of Belgium into
two looks increasingly likely.

Afghanistan.

In 2000, the feuding parties in this country were forced by the international
community to enter into a Grand Coalition government. A few years later,the
coalition collapsed, the war there was at an all time high, and continues to this
day.

Iraq.

The international community also forced a coalition in Iraq. The result is too
painful for me to detail in this article. What is relevant is that the countries
that were very vocal in forcing the coalition now want to pull out of the mess and
leave it for the Iraqi people.

Lebannon.

This is another forced coalition. Right now, the Lebanese Government and it’s
coalition partner, Hizbollah, are at each other’s necks. The reason that war has
not broken out between them is only that the Lebanese army is too weak and is
forced to sit by and watch while Hizbollah’s activities endanger the Lebanese
people, including regular attacks on Israel.

Gaza

The ill fated coalition between Fatah and Hamas did not last a year before heavy
bloodshed resulted. This had followed an election in which Hamas won but the Fatah
PM held onto some elemnts of power, again with US and UN backing, who called for
power sharing between the parties.

The above examples are only a few.

Another key problem with the idea of a grand coalition in Kenya is the speed with
which it is being pursued. It is a joke to gamble with the future of a country by
having eight people sit in a lodge and make binding decisions for its citizens in
a couple of weeks.
The final problem is that since these are opposing parties, it is contradictory to
ask them to ‘agree to share power’. This is NOT the foundation of democracy.