NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenya's "window of opportunity to deliver reform is rapidly closing," former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warned, putting the country at risk for a recurrence of the political violence that brought the East African powerhouse to its knees after disputed elections in 2007.
Though delivered in his characteristic velvet tones, Annan's message was firm: Accelerate the reform agenda and take decisive action, or risk the potential of an irretrievable decline into crisis that will have economic as well as political consequences.
"Kenya is already at -- or past -- the halfway mark between the formation of the Coalition Government and the next electoral cycle," Annan told reporters Oct. 7, at the end of his latest visit to Nairobi on behalf of the African Union's Panel of Eminent African Personalities. "Kenya cannot afford a recurrence of the crisis and violence that engulfed it after the 2007 election, but that is a serious risk if tangible reform is not achieved."