HISTORY DOESN'T ALWAYS END NEATLY...:

Kenyan Rivals Reach Accord on Makeup of Cabinet (Stephanie McCrummen, 4/14/08, Washington Post)

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his political rival Raila Odinga agreed on the details of a 40-member cabinet Sunday, implementing a power-sharing deal they reached in February. [...]

With international pressure mounting, Kibaki on Sunday announced the new cabinet and named Odinga as prime minister. Odinga will oversee and manage the cabinet.

"It's not a bad deal," said Odinga spokesman Salim Lone. "It's an enormous relief."

The arrangement evenly divides the cabinet, with Kibaki's Party of National Unity getting the three heftiest ministries, security, finance and constitutional affairs. Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement gets planning, public service, local government and roads, among others.

Former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan, who mediated the power-sharing deal, is expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony Thursday.

Congo's 'Change of Mentality': Provincial Officials Seek to End Graft, Mismanagement (Stephanie McCrummen, 4/14/08, Washington Post)

[Mid-level government administrator named Vincent-Francois] Yangala's new sense of propriety reflects a monumental challenge facing this central African country the size of Western Europe, which has only 3,000 miles of paved roads, no mail system, no public school system and where some villagers report that they have not even seen a government official in 15 years.

Following the adoption of a new constitution in 2005 and the first multi-party elections in decades, Congo is aiming to decentralize government from the capital of Kinshasa to newly elected legislatures in 11 provinces. More fundamentally, Congolese people are hoping to replace an entrenched culture of corruption with something novel: Good government.

The stakes are high. Graft and mismanagement have left the Congolese among the poorest people in the world. But with a years-long civil war for the most part over and a democratically elected government in place, investors are beginning to return to the resource-rich country.

...but it does End.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 13, 2008 10:49 PM