Ban throws weight behind Kenya peace drive

 

U.N.'s Ban throws weight behind Kenya peace drive

By Duncan Miriri

NAIROBI (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in Kenya to give clout to diplomatic efforts to end a month of post-poll turmoil, urged Kenyans on Friday to immediately stop violence that has killed at least 850 people.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (R) shakes hands with Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki after a closed door meeting during the 10th African Union Summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, January 31, 2008. (REUTERS/Kenya's Presidential Press Service/Handout)

Ban met negotiating teams for Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga trying to reach a deal to end the crisis in what had until the election been one of the continent's more stable nations and strongest economies.

"What is important at this time is to maintain peace and security," he told reporters. "The killing must stop."

But even as he spoke, violence continued in flashpoints all over western Kenya, where rival tribes are locked into a cycle of ethnically-motivated killings and lootings.

"I saw around 20 torched houses including shops and two policemen with arrow wounds, one in the leg, one in the shoulder," said a local journalist who had visited the area and did not want to be named.

"At least 10 people have died from both sides," he said.

Leaders at an African Union summit in Ethiopia want urgent action. Ban flew in from there for a one-day visit intended to bolster mediation led by his predecessor Kofi Annan.

Kenya descended into political and ethnic killing after Kibaki's disputed re-election in a Dec. 27 poll.

"You have lost already too much in terms of national image, economic interest, you lost many tourists ... This is unfortunate for a country that has been enjoying freedom and stability," the U.N. chief said.

More than 300,000 Kenyans are living as refugees.

Odinga says Kibaki stole the vote, while Kibaki says he is the legitimately elected leader. International observers said the count was so chaotic it was impossible to tell who won.

KIBAKI BLAMES RIVALS

At a meeting of an east African regional grouping, President Mwai Kibaki accused his rivals of instigating the bloodshed and told them again to challenge his disputed re-election in court.

"Regrettably, although the election results reflected the will of the majority of Kenyans, the leaders in the opposition instigated a campaign of civil unrest that resulted in over 800 deaths," he said in comments likely to anger the opposition.

Kibaki also urged Odinga to go to court to challenge the result, saying "The accepted rule is to resort to the established constitutional mechanisms."

Odinga says he would not get a fair hearing in court because the judiciary is biased toward Kibaki. The opposition however has challenged legislative elections in the courts.

Media and civil society groups urged leaders to bury their differences for the sake of national peace.

Even if they do, "there's no way we can buy back the lives of the dead," wrote columnist Lucy Oriang' in the Daily Nation.

The unrest has taken the lid off decades-old divisions between tribal groupings over land, wealth and power, dating from British colonial rule and stoked by Kenyan politicians during 44 years of independence.

The United States and European countries have pledged their support for Annan's mediation efforts. Donors have said aid programmes to Kenya are under review.

Many in the country fear what will happen if Annan fails to clinch some sort of power-sharing deal.

But lead negotiators for both Kibaki and Odinga's teams pledged their commitment to dialogue at their meeting with Ban.

Fresh protests, in which witnesses said at least two people were killed, broke out on Thursday after a police officer in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret shot dead an opposition legislator.

He was the second killed in a week.

The officer who shot the legislator and also a female police officer with him, appeared in court on Friday.

Police are treating the killing as a "crime of passion", but Odinga has called it a politically-motivated assassination.

Soldiers fired into the air to disperse angry mobs in Eldoret after the killing. Hospital sources said at least 20 people were wounded in the fighting.

Lying in a hospital bed with a bullet still lodged in his back, mason James Musire said he was walking back from a school meeting when security forces shot him. "I tried to put up my hands in surrender, but they just shot," he said.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne, Bryson Hull and Tim Cocks in Nairobi, David Lewis in Eldoret)

U.N.'s Ban throws weight behind Kenya peace drive