Calls for Mass Rallies Across Kenya

 

Opposition Calls for Mass Rallies Across Kenya

By Nick Wadhams
Nairobi
11 January 2008

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Kenya's political opposition says mediation efforts with the government over Kenya's flawed December elections have collapsed and the opposition is now calling for mass rallies across the country next week. Nick Wadhams has this report for VOA from Nairobi.

Kenya's ODM opposition leader, Raila Odinga, right, speaks with Anyang Nyongo in Nairobi, 11 Jan 2008

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Secretary-General Anyang Nyongo called for Kenyans in towns around Kenya to gather for three days of protests next week, in a move that it hopes will mimic the Ukrainian revolution that led to the overturning of flawed election results.

Just minutes after the plan was announced, Kenya's police commissioner said the rallies would not be allowed.

Leaders of the opposition laid blame for the country's political deadlock in the lap of President Mwai Kibaki's government which says the opposition should bring its complaints to court.  Opposition leaders says that the vote count, which has been surrounded by allegations of rigging, was a violation of the constitution and that the courts are in Mr. Kibaki's pocket.

Flanked by opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga and ODM lawmakers who won parliamentary seats, Nyongo called the vote-rigging and the government's stance a betrayal of the rights of all Kenyans.

"The Kibaki side does not want a just solution," he said.  "It is hell-bent on clinging to power regardless of the verdict of the people of Kenya. The Kibaki side wants only to dictate terms that we should follow. There are no compromises and no second thoughts about what they have done. Talks are just an opportunity for them to delay and silence us, while they consolidate themselves in power."

At least 500 people have been killed and more than 250,000 displaced in violence that erupted since Kenya's vote, and neither side has shown any willingness to compromise.  On Thursday, Ghana President John Kufuor left Kenya after failing to achieve a deal between the two sides.

President Kibaki has named several members of his new Cabinet despite the controversy over the vote, which international observers say appears to have been rigged. Almost all of those appointed are political allies, a fact that the opposition has said is proof of his unwillingness to compromise.

The government says it is committed to constructive dialogue, but opposition leader Nyongo says that is a sham.

"Stealing is still going on, cheating is still going on, and quite honestly, Kibaki should be embarrassed to be, embarrassed every day by the fact that he stole," he added.  "I don't think it's a very good sign to be a head of state who has the extra title of eminent thief."

Meanwhile on Thursday, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was to arrive with several prominent African leaders to try to broker a compromise. Mr. Odinga's team has said it only wants talks to take place through a mediator, while President Kibaki has insisted on face-to-face negotiations.

VOA News - Opposition Calls for Mass Rallies Across Kenya

 

ODM Plans Three Days of Mass Action

The East African Standard (Nairobi)

NEWS
12 January 2008
Posted to the web 11 January 2008
Nairobi

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) plans countrywide three-day rallies beginning Wednesday as part of its mass action programme to push up its claim President Kibaki stole their victory.

The prospect of a confrontation immediately sprung up as Police Commissioner Hussein Ali once again decreed all rallies, no matter the profile of the organisers, will not be allowed.

"The ban on public protests and rallies is still on. The ODM protests are thus illegal and outlawed," said Ali. But ODM maintained its rallies would be peaceful.

ODM also struck a different cord, a day after African Union effort to bring Mr Raila Odinga and President Kibaki to the negotiating table failed, by calling for aid freeze. ODM, whose previous attempts to hold a rally in Nairobi's Uhuru Park were blocked by a security human wall around the venue, also conceded negotiations had flopped.

ODM escalated the scope of its planned rallies as news arrived former UN secretary general Mr Kofi Annan, who replaces the African Union chairman and Ghanaian President Mr John Kufuor, won't arrive before Tuesday.

Annan's office in Geneva broke the news the global peacemaker who takes up negotiations from Kufuor, would not be around before Tuesday when the Tenth Parliament sits.

Terming the mass action 'a call to defence of our nation' the party said the protests would be held in the full glare of Annan.

"We want Mr Annan to mediate the talks with full knowledge of the magnitude of the problem," ODM secretary General Prof Anyang' Nyong'o said, in a statement read before 100 MPs-elect and Pentagon members.

"How can donors trust a government that steals votes to use funds judiciously without pilferage?" Nyong'o asked.

"Talks are just an opportunity for them to delay and silence us, while they consolidate power," the party said.

Pentagon members Mr William Ruto, Mr Najib Balala, Mr Joe Nyagah and Raila were present.

The venues of the rallies released by the party include Ruringu stadium in Kibaki's home turf, as well as Tonoka Grounds (Mombasa) Jomo Kenyatta Grounds (Kisumu) Afraha Stadium (Nakuru), Muliro Gardens (Kakamega), Kipchoge Keino Stadium (Eldoret), Gusii Stadium (Kisii), Kericho Green Stadium, Moi's Embu Stadium, and Mulu Mutisya Gardens in Machakos.

At the same time four former African leaders continued to push for face-to-face talks between Raila and Kibaki as the African Union names three new mediators.

 

Meanwhile, President Kibaki attended a funeral service of a family member in Nairobi and called on leaders to help heal the nation from the post-election violence.

The violence, which exploded in Kitale yesterday after days of relative calm, has claimed about 500 lives, displaced close to 300,000 people and led to wanton destruction of private property in Western, Nyanza, Coast, Nairobi and Rift Valley provinces.

Kibaki said there was need for leaders to find solutions to these problems.

Kibaki calling for dialogue

In a brief speech that hinted that Kibaki had not closed doors on dialogue with the opposition, the President said the challenge facing political leaders was to rebuild the nation and "each one of us is going to rise to the occasion".

"The challenge is to build the nation and each one of us is going to rise to the occasion," he said.

But Kibaki was silent on how he would engage the opposition in talks to end the sporadic skirmishes and the humanitarian crisis that has rocked the country for two weeks.

Finance minister Mr Amos Kimunya said: "The position taken by ODM that the talks had collapsed was not correct, the Government is still open to dialogue."

Kimunya said Kufuor left the country after he looked at the issues under dispute and realised "he had better things to do at home".

"ODM wants to join government and we are encouraging dialogue. We do not see the need for mediation for such an issue. We did not need mediation between ODM-Kenya and us," Kimunya said.

Kanu chairman and Local Government minister Mr Uhuru Kenyatta said the call for mass action by ODM was a sign of bad faith since negotiations were on-going.

"It is not a sign of good faith because we are open for dialogue. The President waited for them and they did not turn up. We are ready and waiting to talk. We ask the same from our colleagues," Uhuru said.

Kibaki's statement came as senior PNU politicians trooped to a city hotel for a meeting with MPs elected on small parties' tickets reportedly to discuss a power-sharing arrangement and a partnership deal in Parliament where PNU is outnumbered.

It is believed PNU dangled the seats left vacant after Kibaki named half the Cabinet this week, to MPs falling under the Small Parties Parliamentary Group.

Raila said he shared every sentiments expressed by his colleagues for protest. "I share in every sentiment expressed here. The views expressed here are also my views," said Raila, in response to a BBC question.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth offices said in a statement Annan would be joined by South African First Lady Graca Machel and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa.

A statement by Foreign Secretary David Miliband said UK supports the effort.

Former African Head of States who came in to support the mediation rendered another international effort, rekindling hope all is not yet lost.

Under the aegis of the Africa Forum Mission to Kenya, former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, Dr Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Sir Ketumile Masire (Botswana) and Mkapa called on the parties to end the turmoil.

Talks collapsed

They maintained the talks were still on course, terming the perception that a breakthrough had stalled, 'dangerous.'

Said Nyong'o: "Talks between ODM and Kibaki collapsed due to the refusal of that side to negotiate with us. We're are responsive and working for a just solution."

"Kibaki side is hell-bent on clinging to power, regardless of the verdict of Kenyans. His side wants to dictate terms for us without the will to redress the situation" Nyong'o added.

Government members insisted mediation had not collapsed and that the doors for negotiations are still open.

Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Ms Martha Karua has maintained a hard line, arguing President Kibaki was validly elected during an interview with BBC's Hard Talk programme. "President Kibaki had been validly elected and those who opposed to it should seek redress in court," Karua said.

"There is nothing like negotiations for power. The talks are to restore peace and calm, not for power," the Government spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua is on record saying.

But Science and Technology minister Dr Noah Wekesa said the Government was still committed to mediation and refuted claims it had declined to have round-table talks with ODM.

"There is room for negotiations and we are willing to sit with ODM. We must allow ourselves to talk to each other," he said.

Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly has announced the commitment of the assembly in finding a solution to current political crisis.

"The assembly reaffirms its commitment to play its part in this process and do all in its power to assist in getting a lasting solution," said Mr Abdirahin Haithar Abdi.

Other appeals for negotiations to go on came from National Council of Churches of Kenya, Hindu Council of Kenya, Evangelical Churches of Kenya, Anglican Church, and the Nairobi Pentecostal Church, after a press conference to back negotiations.

Acknowledging the daunting task in front of the ODM's media consultant Mr Salim Lone, told Britain's Sky News, on Friday, "It is going to be very hard," to resolve the impasse.

He said ODM had "gone two or three extra miles to show we are reasonable, we are flexible, even though we won the election. The whole world knows we won the election."

The Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya asked Kenyans not to react violently to the collapse of talks between the Government and ODM.

The secretary general Sheikh Mohammad Dor, however, says Kenyans should continue fighting for their rights peacefully, "Until Kibaki steps down".

"Kenyans should continue with countrywide but peaceful protests until they get their rights," Dor he advised.

 

Kenya opposition announces new protests

Xan Rice in Nairobi
Friday January 11, 2008
Guardian Unlimited

Kenyans were bracing themselves for further unrest today after opposition leader Raila Odinga announced a resumption of mass action around the country in defiance of a police ban on public rallies.

The call came after the failure of a mediation effort by African Union head and Ghanaian president John Kufuor, who met Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki, although not together.

Kibaki, accused by the opposition of stealing the election, maintains that no external help is needed to solve the political crisis and violent social turmoil that erupted after the December 27 vote.

The rallies are planned for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at more than 20 locations across Kenya, to protest against Kibaki's election victory, which local and international observers say was deeply flawed.

Earlier attempts at mass action in Nairobi saw clashes between Odinga's supporters, mostly drawn from the city's slums, and riot police, who used tear gas and water cannons to keep them away from Uhuru Park, near the city centre.

"Kenyans are entitled to protest peacefully at this blatant violation of their fundamental rights," said Anyang' Nyong'o, secretary-general of Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement, who also called for international sanctions on Kibaki's government.

Nyong'o's anger is echoed across the opposition leadership, who feel they were duped into calling off mass action last Monday in anticipation of talks with Kufuor and Kibaki.

While it had the effect of calming tensions that have already seen 500 people killed and more than 250,000 people displaced, the negotiations never occurred and Odinga's momentum was lost.

Kibaki, meanwhile, announced half of his cabinet, filling all the key ministries with his close political allies.

One of them is Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Kenya's first president Jomo Kenyatta, who abandoned his role as leader of the official opposition to join Kibaki's party just months before the election.

"Dialogue is not engaged in the streets," said Kenyatta, the new minister for local government, today. "Dialogue suggests that people resolve their differences peacefully, over a table, not through destroying property and killing innocent Kenyans."

The timing of the opposition rallies is significant. Parliament is due to open on Tuesday, and Odinga's party will have the majority of the seats.

The same day, Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, is due to arrive in Kenya together with Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, and former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa, as part of follow up to Kufuor's visit.

Analysts say this gives Kibaki two separate opportunities to reach out to Odinga - who refuses to meet him without an international mediator present - and to avoid a repeat of the ugly scenes that marred earlier protests.

But so far there has been little indication that Kibaki is willing to compromise.

Some younger, more junior members of the government have entered into tentative negotiations with the opposition. But hardliners in the office of the president, including Stanley Murage, a wealthy businessman from Central Kenya who Kibaki appointed as his "special advisor on strategy" in 2004, are refusing to give any ground.

Kibaki's intransigence over negotiations, which appears out of character for a man long regarded as one of the gentlemen of Kenyan politics, has been criticised in the local media, as was his move to appoint cabinet ministers at such a sensitive time.

To many people on the street, his defiant conduct since the election appears callous, especially given the dire humanitarian situation caused by the unrest.

It took Kibaki 10 days to visit any of the people displaced by the post- election violence. Yesterday his press team said that he had made another public appearance, joining thousands of mourners in "eulogising" Alex Muriithi, a wealthy businessman who headed a regional development authority.

Muriithi, who was Kibaki's nephew and a key political ally, died not in the unrest, but of cancer, a few days before the election.

Kibaki's office has also responded to reports that Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, was the only world leader to congratulate him on his reelection, releasing a statement saying that four other countries had also applauded his victory: Morocco, Kuwait, Swaziland and Somalia.