2008 — The Handshake That Stopped Kenya's Bleeding

On February 28, 2008, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga signed the National Accord in Nairobi, ending two months of post-election violence that had killed over 1,200 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. The signing put a formal end to Kenya's worst crisis in years.

Kofi Annan's 41-day mediation forged a grand coalition: Kibaki as president, Odinga as prime minister, which held until 2013. From the accord's reforms came Kenya's 2010 constitution, a lasting promise that ballots, not bullets, decide the future. Two rivals signing one document showed a country how to step back from the edge. Forty-one days of mediation ended with one signature from each side of a divided country.