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Kenya Opposition promises more rallies
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga on Sunday promised more rallies and again rejected an offer from the president to establish a national unity government as this East African nation struggled to contain deadly post-election violence.
- Agencies
- Published: 19:47 January 6, 2008
- Image Credit: Reuters
- People pray yesterday at a Lutheran church burnt during post-election violence in Nairobi's Kibera slum.
Nairobi: Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga on Sunday promised more rallies and again rejected an offer from the president to establish a national unity government as this East African nation struggled to contain deadly post-election violence.
Kenyans, meanwhile, prayed for peace and an end to the political deadlock as a relative calm descended following days of often ethnic-driven violence that left some 300 people dead.
Aid workers sought to bring relief to an estimated 250,000 refugees from post-election violence that has also killed hundreds.
"Our leaders have failed us. They have brought this catastrophe upon us. So now we are turning to the Almighty to save Kenya," said Jane Riungu, leading her five children in their best clothes to a hilltop church outside Nairobi.
But the rallies planned for Tuesday and Odinga's refusal to share power raised the prospects of more violence.
Odinga, who claims President Mwai Kibaki rigged the December 27 election that kept him in power, said there must be mediation instead of a unity government, and that Kibaki, "cannot offer us anything because he did not win the election."
On Saturday, Odinga indicated he was not willing to share power with Kibaki. But he demanded an international mediator, saying Kibaki should bring any proposals to the table.
On Sunday morning, however, he said a unity government was out of the question.
The crisis has pitted Kibaki's Kikuyu people against Kenya's other tribes, and brought chaos to a country of 34 million people that had been one of East Africa's most stable democracies.
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