KENYA: Kenya opposition calls wave of street protests and sanctions while no plans to re-settle thousands displaced

Record ID: 361774

  • Title: KENYA: Kenya opposition calls wave of street protests and sanctions while no plans to re-settle thousands displaced
  • Date: 12th January 2008
  • Summary: (BN10) NAIROBI, KENYA (JANUARY 11, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BUSY STREETS/ PEOPLE WALKING VARIOUS OF NEWSPAPERS
  • Embargoed: 27th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1XFSAA3Y1KWJKSAWND7PI5X0
  • Story Text: Kenya's opposition on Friday (January 11) called three days of nationwide protests next week to put pressure on President Mwai Kibaki's government after the collapse of mediation efforts over a disputed election.
    An African Union mission to resolve the political crisis that has killed 500 people ended in failure on Thursday (January 10) as the president and opposition leaders accused each other of wrecking talks.

    "We are asking our countrymen and women with whom we feel such great sadness and solidarity to join us in demonstrations countrywide on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week," ODM secretary general Anyang' Nyong'o told reporters.
    Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) also called for international sanctions on Kibaki, who was re-elected in the December 27 poll.

    "That sanctions at this time is necessary because you cannot trust a government that steals the vote from its own people to look after such valuable resources as we get from our international partners", said Nyong'o.
    The unrest has tarnished Kenya's democratic credentials, damaged east Africa's largest and previously booming economy, hit supplies to neighbours, and unnerved Western donors.
    This week's failure of AU head and Ghanaian President John Kufuor to broker a deal has dismayed Kenyans enduring one of the worst chapters of their nation's post-independence history.

    "It's sad for our leaders that they cannot sit down and talk even after international mediation," David Mutungi, a Nairobi resident, told Reuters.

    "It's awful that most of our leaders are giving conditions, you should not be having conditions for a country. Let the leaders sit down, talk and organize themselves," he said.
    As mediation efforts struggle unsuccessfully, thousands of Kenyans remain displaced after clashes and violence spawned a humanitarian crisis in the country.
    Thousands of displaced people -- mostly from Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe -- are waiting in limbo at an agricultural showground in Nakuru after they fled their homes in various parts of Kenya's Rift Valley Province to find safety.
    Nakuru, some 150 kilometres west of Nairobi, is home primarily to the Kalenjin tribe of former president Daniel arap Moi, but many Kikuyus have moved there where they've intermarried and run their businesses.
    The showground, usually the venue for trade fairs and public gatherings, has become a safe haven for terrified people escaping post election violence in the area and around the country following the disputed re-election of president Mwai Kibaki.
    The Red cross, local residents and churches have teamed up to help the refugees.
    The children pass time by singing, many of them oblivious to the serious situation around them and the extent of the loss that their parents are struggling to deal with, with no immediate solution in sight.
    Volunteers have turned up in big numbers helping cook and feed the displaced people here.
    Sleeping out in the cold and lack of clean water has caused many, especially children to fall sick.
    A clinic has been set up at the showground where doctors have been treating mostly respiratory diseases and diarrhoea in children.
    It's been almost two weeks and the displaced people are too afraid to go back to their homes for fear attackers may be waiting for them.
    Aid agencies are working to make the camps more hospitable. There are no plans so far to re-settle the displaced. Some homes were torched and there is nothing to go back to.

    "As you are aware there are negotiations and if calm returns, if calm is restored, most likely then they will want to go back to their places of residence which was there earlier. So right now I think it is too short a time to suggest that there are people who would not want to go elsewhere and be permanently here maybe after two weeks or so we would be able to know of the ones who cannot go anywhere," said Begi Pascal, from the Red Cross.
    The United Nations estimated on Friday that 500,000 people caught up in post-election violence in Kenya would need humanitarian assistance including vital food rations.
    It plans to seek funds next week to help more than a quarter of a million Kenyans forced to flee their homes, but said its appeal to donors could be expanded.
    Nearly one in three Kenyan children under five were already suffering severe malnutrition before the crisis, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.
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