MEDIATION
Mediation is a means of resolving a dispute where a trained third party is involved. Mediation happens after a conflict of interest between two parties who have uneven power balance. The parties to a conflict must be willing to negotiate for mediation efforts to be successful. The mediator who is the third party assists the parties in negotiating a settlement. The third party is supposed to be impartial in the process. Mediators should also be accepted by the parties and has no authority to make any decision for the parties.
Mediation is an interactive process where the parties to a conflict engage in verbal communication. This process requires a mediator who assists the parties to a conflict identify the issues that brought about…show more content… This was Kenya’s biggest crisis after its independence. The country was taken over by violence following the announcement of the results for presidential elections. Approximately 1,300 people were killed in the violent conflict, property was destroyed and many Kenyans were displaced. The AU sent former UN secretary General Kofi Annan to Kenya to come and lead the mediation talks. Having worked as the UN sec general, Annan was the best mediator to send to Kenya since he had knowledge of conflict resolution. The two parties to the conflict were PNU and ODM. PNU was president Kibaki’s party who was declared president while ODM was Raila Odinga’s party which believed that the elections were marred by irregularities and therefore according to ODM, Kibaki had not won the…show more content… In 2010, Raila Odinga, the then Kenyan Prime Minister was appointed by the AU commissioner chief Jean Ping to lead efforts of resolving a conflict in Ivory Coast which had claimed the lives of over 200 people. The conflict was between Laurent Bagbo, the incumbent president and Alassane Quattara who were both claiming the victory in the country’s run-off presidential elections. Bagbo accused Raila of bias after Raila blamed Bagbo of stalling the peace talks. Raila was rejected and could therefore not mediate in Ivory