Nairobi:  Kenya's progress in dealing with the challenges of post-election violence will come under scrutiny during Africa peer review in January at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  The country is among the five countries that include Ghana, Namibia, South Africa and Rwanda that are expected to provide progress reports on matters of governance and economic development.

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Speaking on Tuesday at NEPAD offices in Liason house, Nairobi, the chief executive officer, Dr Grace Ongile who launched the popular version of Africa Peer Review Mechanism in English and Kiswahili said various overarching issues affecting the country had been identified. The report covers the periods between June 2006 and June 2008.

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Kenya first presented its report in 2006 at Banjul in Gambia when the country received praise for its quick turn around of the economy and increased primary school enrolment. The economic growth was over six per cent from a negative growth in 2002 while over one million children had joined school in January 2003. However, its progress in constitutional and political reforms lagged behind, and since then the country degenerated following post-election violence.  The economy is projected to grow at between 3.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent due to disruption early in the year.

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Dr Ongile said among the challenges the country faced was managing diversity and dominance of ethnic interest, which was a constant threat to national unity. The country, the report noted, was bedevilled by corruption, gender inequality, youth unemployment and culture of impunity. It notes that the institutions like parliament were slow to respond to the challenges by passing few Bills, while the civil servants were slow to adopt to changes.  The capacity of the judiciary to maintain rule of law is noted as major challenge facing the country as it seeks to establish democracy.

Dr Ongile said land reforms and constitutional reforms were among the key issues that held back the country's progress.

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The reports notes that upto mid-July, the government had settled 106,651 out of 350,000 internally displaced persons and raised Sh457 million out of the required Sh31 billion. The government had also allocated Sh1.3 billion for buying land to resettle squatters.  The report, however notes that several strides had been achieved in uplifting the youth and women through funds set up for their programmes.