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Annan seeks to break Kenya's deadlock
Kofi Annan is taking over mediation in a dispute over presidential elections that has left over 500 dead in Kenya, after his predecessor failed to get President Mwai Kibaki and his rival to even meet.
- AP
- Published: 23:32 January 10, 2008
- Kenyans in Kibera, a slum town in Nairobi and one of the worst hit by post-election violence, are slowly trying to put their lives back together.
- Image Credit: Tracy Brand/Gulf News
Nairobi, Kenya: Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is taking over mediation in a dispute over presidential elections that has left over 500 dead in Kenya, after his predecessor failed to get President Mwai Kibaki and his rival to even meet.
Diplomats have been stymied for days. But departing African Union (AU) mediator John Kufuor, the president of Ghana, emphasised the positive in comments to reporters at the airport yesterday.
"Both sides agree there should be an end to violence," said Kufuor, current chairman of the AU.
The AU statement said Kufuor had won an agreement from Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga to work with a panel of eminent Africans led by Annan to resolve their differences over December 27 elections that the opposition accuses Kibaki of stealing.
International observers agree the vote was rigged, and even Kibaki's own election chief has said he can't be sure who won.
Allies of Kibaki were sworn in as Cabinet ministers yesterday, further dampening hopes for a power-sharing compromise. Odinga has said he would meet Kibaki only in the presence of an international mediator. Kibaki wants direct talks.
Earlier, protesters from the women's wing of Odinga's party marched in protest chanting "No peace, no justice! Kibaki is a thief," Police fired tear gas at them, noting a ban on all demonstrations since the violence erupted. The women ran away in disarray.
"We are calling for truth about what happened to our votes and the votes of Kenyans," said the chairman of the party's women's league, Jacqueline Oduol.
Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice, an umbrella for civil groups formed after the elections, presented police yesterday with a long list of alleged charges against electoral commissioners and some staff, including forgery, subverting the rule of law, making out false certificates and abuse of office.
The civic groups called for the prosecution of all 22 members of the Electoral Commission and some commission staff, including vote counters.
According to a Kenyan government website, Kibaki won 4,584,721 votes or 47 per cent of the ballots cast, against Odinga's 4,352,993, or 44 per cent.
Flawed
"The electoral process is so seriously flawed that, until that is redressed, and until we have truth and justice about the election, we are not going to have a viable society in Kenya," said Shailja Patel of the Kenyans for Peace, which includes the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights, which while state-funded has proven in the past to be independent and is highly respected, and the Law Society of Kenya.
While multiparty politics is only 15 years old in Kenya, the country's democracy has been bolstered by a lively and independent media and increasingly vigorous civil society.
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