AU Chief Meets With Kenyan President, Opposition Leader

 

African Union Chairman John Kufuor (L) is welcomed by Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki upon his arrival at Nairobi airport, 08 Jan 2008

The chairman of the African Union is holding talks with Kenya's key political leaders Wednesday to mediate an end to the political crisis that has left nearly 500 people dead.

Ghanian President John Kufuor met briefly with President Mwai Kibaki before holding talks with opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Mr. Kufuor's efforts were complicated Tuesday when his Kenyan counterpart unveiled half the members of his new Cabinet - none of them members of Mr. Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement party.

The opposition denounced the appointments as evidence Mr. Kibaki is unwilling to negotiate an end to a stalemate following last month's disputed presidential election.

Mr. Odinga has turned down the president's offer to hold face-to-face talks on Friday, saying he would do so only in the presence of an international mediator.

A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga need to find a way to open the channels of communication between them.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has extended the diplomatic mission of Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer. U.S. officials say Rice told Frazer to stay in the region for as long as she thinks her presence can be useful to defuse the Kenyan crisis.

The violence began after Mr. Odinga and his supporters accused Mr. Kibaki of rigging the December 27 vote to ensure his victory. The fighting has mainly been carried out between members of Mr. Odinga's Luo tribe and Mr. Kibaki's Kikuyus tribe.

VOA News - AU Chief Meets With Kenyan President, Opposition Leader

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Hundreds of Kenyans fearing new political violence fled the country's west Wednesday, but the president urged refugees not to abandon their homes and insisted he would hold onto power despite allegations he stole an election.

People queue as food is distributed in Nairobi's Kibera slum.

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Diplomats worked to end a conflict that has killed more than 500 people since the Dec. 27 presidential vote. President Mwai Kibaki assured the visiting African Union chairman Wednesday that he was ready for dialogue, although he has resisted outside mediation and the opposition insists it will not negotiate without it.

Kibaki made his first trip to a trouble spot, addressing more than 1,000 refugees in western Kenya, many of whom had fled blazing homes, pursued by rock-throwing mobs wielding machetes and bows and arrows.

"Do not be afraid. The government will protect you. Nobody is going to be chased from where they live," Kibaki said at a school transformed into a camp for the displaced in the corn-farming community of Burnt Forest.

"Those who have been inciting people and brought this mayhem will be brought to justice." He indicated he would not consider demands for a new election or vote recount.

The election "is finished and anybody who thinks they can turn it around should know that it's not possible and it will never be possible," he said.

Hundreds of Kenyans fled the western town of Kisumu, fearing more strife after Kibaki named half of a new Cabinet, a lineup packed with his allies.

With suitcases on their heads and frightened children grabbing at their skirts, ethnic Kamba women searched for transportation out of Kisumu after one of their tribe was named vice president. Seven buses and two dozen cars overloaded with people who waited on a police escort to try to reach Nairobi.

On the road to the capital, dozens of angry youths brandishing sticks burned tires to block the route. "If elections fail, violence prevails!" they shouted.

Thousands of people from Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe have already been chased or burned out of their homes in Kisumu in a week of riots and ethnic clashes following the disputed elections.

"Our lives are in danger. Now those things that happened to the Kikuyu will happen to the Kamba," businessman Isaac Notuva said at the Kisumu bus station, where fares doubled overnight.

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Salim Lone, a spokesman for Odinga's party, said Kibaki's Cabinet announcement was "a slap in the face" and was intended to undermine the AU-mediated talks on the crisis.

The Cabinet members announced by Kibaki included no portfolios for members of Odinga's party.

Most posts went to members of Kibaki's party, although Kalonzo Musyoka, a minor presidential candidate who won just 9 percent of votes, was named vice president and another member of Kalonzo's party was named information minister.

In a statement, Kibaki indicated there still was room for the main opposition party in his full Cabinet. "It is envisioned that this government will be established as a result of a constructive and inclusive dialogue. Nothing is ruled out in this process," he said.

He assured AU chairman John Kufuor, the president of Ghana, that he had already initiated a process of dialogue with other Kenyan leaders," according to a government statement.

But on Tuesday, Odinga rejected Kibaki's invitation to talks as a "public relations gimmickry" intended to deflect attention from international mediation.

Odinga met Wednesday with Kufuor and four former African heads of state. He said he told the statesmen "we want peace to return to our country ... There cannot be lasting peace without justice."

According to a Kenyan government Web site, Kibaki won 4,584,721 votes or 47 percent of the ballots cast, against Odinga's 4,352,993, or 44 percent.

However, even the chairman of the country's electoral commission has said he is not sure Kibaki won. The top American envoy to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said this week that the vote count at the heart of the dispute was tampered with and both sides could have been involved.

Odinga's party won 95 parliament seats and Kibaki's party 43 in legislative elections held the same day as the presidential elections, meaning it will be difficult for Kibaki to govern without making some overture to Odinga.

U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama -- whose late father was Kenyan -- called Odinga to urge a peaceful resolution. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the senator spoke to Odinga on Monday for about five minutes.

Odinga said on British Broadcasting Corp. radio that Obama's father was his maternal uncle, and that Obama called him twice "in the midst of his campaigning ... to express his concern and to say that he is also going to call President Kibaki so that Kibaki agrees to find a negotiated, satisfactory solution to this problem."

Kenya is an ally in the United States' war on terrorism and has turned over dozens of people to the U.S. and Ethiopia as suspected terrorists. The country allows American forces to operate from Kenyan bases and conducts joint exercises with U.S. troops in the region.

The U.S. also is a major donor to Kenya, long seen as a stable democracy in a region that includes war-ravaged Somalia and Sudan. Aid amounts to roughly $1 billion a year, said U.S. Embassy spokesman T.J. Dowling. E-