KENYA: Kenya's Odinga rejects bilateral talks with government as new cabinet members named

Record ID: 362111

  • Title: KENYA: Kenya's Odinga rejects bilateral talks with government as new cabinet members named
  • Date: 9th January 2008
  • Summary: CLOSE UP OF BOYS LOOKING AT LEADERS
  • Embargoed: 24th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5GBA0DPSO1NWUBOVHKOILY8OW
  • Story Text: Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday (January 8) rejected a government offer of bilateral talks to end a political crisis that has killed 500 people, saying president Mwai Kibaki was not a legitimate president.
    "We will not go to State House to meet Mr. Kibaki because we say he is there illegally," he said.
    Odinga said he had appealed to Kenyans to 'shun violence' as he called off protests scheduled for Tuesday saying it was in the interests of peace and to give the 'mediation process' a chance.
    Meanwhile, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki announced part of his new cabinet on Tuesday, including Amos Kimunya as finance minister.
    "In forming the cabinet, I have considered the importance of keeping the Country united, peaceful and prosperous and a strong broad based leadership," Kibaki said in a televised address to the nation.
    Later on Tuesday, Ghana's President John Kufuor, the African Union chairman, arrived in Kenya to meet Odinga and Kibaki, whose disputed re-election in Dec. 27 polls that foreign observers said fell short of democratic standards.
    Kibaki had invited Odinga to talks on Friday but the opposition leader said he would only attend negotiations mediated by John Kufuor.
    Kibaki did not invite Kufuor to the Friday talks and officials say he will remain in Nairobi for little more than 24 hours.
    Earlier, the Kenyan government said it would carry out investigations with the help of international bodies into the acts of ethnic cleansing that sent shock waves round one of Africa's most stable democracies.
    Government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, told journalists at a news briefing that the killings were 'pre-planned'.
    "The ones who survived some of these areas especially the Rift Valley are telling the government and the investigators that they were forewarned before the elections that if they voted for president Kibaki they would be attacked," said Mutua.
    Efforts towards a quick solution to Kenya's crisis, have been slow with government and opposition are still divided on how to conduct negotiations.
    Former presidents, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, Keneth Kaunda from Zambia and Benjamin Mkapa from Tanzania have arrived in Eldoret town in Rift Valley, to see one of the regions worst hit by ethnic violence.
    Thousands in the area have been displaced and many have fled to safe havens around the country.
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