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Kenya negotiators urge patience amid talk of 'deal'
Negotiators for President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga re-started talks yesterday in a mood of national optimism that a political solution to Kenya's worst crisis since independence may be near.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:55 February 11, 2008
- Displaced Kenyans wait for a truck in Kisumu to reach their final destination in western Kenya where they will resettle.
- Image Credit: AP
Nairobi: Negotiators for President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga re-started talks on Monday in a mood of national optimism that a political solution to Kenya's worst crisis since independence may be near.
Mediator and former UN chief Kofi Annan has predicted the two sides will agree on a formula this week to overcome their dispute over the December 27 election that triggered violence that left more than 1,000 people dead and displaced at least 300,000.
Kenyan media and sources close to the talks say that will almost certainly be a power-sharing deal.
Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is no longer calling on Kibaki to step down, the sources say, while Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) has dropped its demand the opposition take its grievances over the polls to court.
"On the threshold of a breakthrough," read The Standard's banner headline, one of many predicting success in the talks.
At the Maasai Mara national park, rangers even named a newly born rhino Kofi Annan in honour of his role.
Annan himself warned media against "speculation and rumours" at this delicate stage in his negotiating mission.
Government negotiator Mutula Kilonzo, who said last week he was "1,000 per cent confident" a deal was coming, urged patience.
"The media is selling a deal. It could be up to a week," he told reporters at a plush Nairobi hotel that has become the centre of international diplomatic efforts to end the crisis.
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