While credit is usually given to eminent African personalities under former UN Secretary General late Kofi Annan and a host of politicians on restoration of peace in Kenya, the reverse may be true.
After the disputed 2007 polls, the country was on the verge of collapsing. Kofi Annan's initial attempts could not yield much, it has now emerged.
Instead, it took the efforts of retired military generals, whose glittering career in peace keeping missions are renowned worldwide, to persuade President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga to tone down.
Lieutenant General (Rtd) Daniel Opande and his other colleague Lieutenant General (Rtd) Lazarus Sumbeiywo, played a major role in the process.
For Opande, who stays in Eldoret, he had a vast of knowledge in peace keeping missions having worked in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mozambique and Namibia.
In an interview with the Nation on Friday, Opande, who recently launched In Pursuit of Peace in Africa, handed some of his peace keeping regalia to Kenya Archives.
“Today, I’m handing over a few items, which I believe as we fade away, form a major focus of life we tend to ignore to leave behind for future generations to learn or see,” he says philosophically.
“As we fade away from the scene, we should not fade away with things that we earned while working for this country and the world we live in."
According to him, his team met politicians from either side including Mr Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, then Vice President, to try and calm the situation.
With the input of Annan's group, he adds, the team was able to soberly negotiate, leading to creation of the grand coalition government, which saw Raila installed Prime Minister.
Recalls the retired general, who has vast experience in crisis resolution: “The country at that time was on the verge of breaking into factions.The issue had moved out of two political parties – PNU and ODM. Kenya was drifting into a failed state and we were almost there. When you see militias trying to run a country, those are signs enough that things are not the same any more.
”Politicians may take credit for shaking hands for the round-table agreement, but there were other people in the background who mattered in the whole process of peace negotiation,” he says.
“Our message to the two opposing teams was clear: we had the responsibility to cultivate peace”.
Sumbeiywo, who also worked during Daniel Moi's regime, is one of the career peace keeping corp who helped the retired president to survive during 1982 attempted coup.
Both officers served as Kenya Army Commanders before their retirement. They are often called for high level consultations on matters peace and security in the country.