KENYA: Opposition awaits crisis talks with AU chair to resolve poll dispute

Record ID: 361409

  • Title: KENYA: Opposition awaits crisis talks with AU chair to resolve poll dispute
  • Date: 6th January 2008
  • Summary: (EU) NAIROBI, KENYA (JANUARY 06, 2008) (REUTERS) PEOPLE WALKING IN CHURCH VARIOUS OF OPPOSITION, ORANGE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT (ODM) OFFICIALS LEAVING CHURCH (SOUNDBITE) (English) ODM LEADER RAILA ODINGA SAYING: "The mediator is President John Kufuor of Ghana, and the indications are that finally the other side might have given him consent to come. As soon as he arrives, neg
  • Embargoed: 21st January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA359L0KF2IGXZ2FERXFNSYAHFH
  • Story Text: Opposition leader, Raila Odinga is looking forward to holding talks with Ghanaian President John Kufuor next week in an attempt to break the country's political deadlock and end its explosion of ethnic violence.
    The mission by Kufuor, chair of the African Union, to a nation swept by tribal clashes since a Dec. 27 election the opposition says was rigged, had appeared to have been abandoned on Friday after Kenyan authorities rejected the idea.
    But Kenya's deputy foreign minister Moses Wetangula flew to Ghana for talks on Saturday, and Ghanaian Foreign Minister Akwasi Osei-Adjei told Reuters that embattled Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, official election winner, had now approved the trip.
    Earlier on Saturday, Kibaki said he was ready to form a national unity government to end riots and political bloodletting that have killed at least 300 people and forced 250,000 from their homes.
    The opposition said the offer changed nothing, Kibaki should step down and only internationally-mediated talks would end the crisis.
    After attending a prayers at a local church in the capital, Nairobi Odinga told journalists that he would be holding talks with president Kufuor.

    "The mediator is President John Kufuor of Ghana, and the indications are that finally the other side might have given him consent to come. As soon as he arrives, negotiations will start," said Odinga.
    A spokesman for Kibaki's team said he could not immediately comment on what had caused the hold-up in Kufuor's visit.
    The United Nations says the unrest has uprooted 250,000 people, and that many in the country's west are facing starvation after fleeing violence that included the burning to death of 30 people barricaded in a church.
    World powers have been horrified by the bloodshed in what had been seen as one of Africa's most stable democracies. On Saturday, U.S. envoy Jendayi Frazer met both men, shortly before Kibaki unveiled his offer of a unity government.
    Odinga had looked on course to win the vote until Kibaki was handed a narrow victory last Sunday. International observers say the election fell short of democratic standards.
    The opposition appeared to have ruled out a national unity government even before Kibaki's statement.
    Odinga helped Kibaki win power in a 2002 election, but says the president then broke a promise to award him a new prime minister's position.
    Their mutual distrust is a key obstacle to ending the standoff.
    Odinga demands that a transitional government be formed ahead of new presidential vote within three to six months.
    Kibaki was sworn in at his residence on Sunday just an hour after the results were announced. Opposition anger exploded around the country in demonstrations and tribal killings that mostly only subsided on Friday.
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