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Rival Kenyan leaders agree to
meet as death toll climbs
08. Jan 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Kenya's president and opposition leader
will meet to address vote-counting irregularities and the ensuing
violence in which nearly 500 people have been killed, U.S. envoy
Jendayi Frazer said on Monday.
African Union chairman John Kufuor will try to mediate between
Kenya's warring factions.
Frazer, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, told CNN
that she was able to get President Mwai Kibaki and bitter rival
Raila Odinga to agree to talk under the mediation of the African
Union's chairman by relaying the concerns of the Kenyan people.
"I was simply able to echo that voice with the leaders," Frazer
said.
"They both have to acknowledge certain key issues -- for instance
that there were irregularities in the counting of the vote and
that violence is not the answer to these problems.
"I think that both are prepared to move the country forward on an
understanding of that basis."
Ghanaian President John Kufuor is expected to arrive in Kenya on
Tuesday evening to mediate talks between the two, Frazer said,
which has led Odinga's party to cancel a planned rally earlier
that day.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua would not say if the president
was prepared to enter into a power-sharing arrangement with Odinga,
but said Kibaki is ready to work with "like-minded parties."
"We do want a strong opposition, otherwise we would have a
one-party state," Mutua added.
Kibaki invited Odinga to take part in talks Friday at the
president's official residence, the State House, Mutua said.
Reacting to that written invitation, Odinga's spokesman said the
opposition leader "would be happy to meet Mr. Kibaki on Friday if
it is part of the negotiations that are to be mediated by
President Kufuor of Ghana."
International mediation is a key demand of Odinga's Orange
Democratic Movement, which has accused Kibaki of stealing his
re-election victory.
Odinga supporters trying to attend two scheduled rallies in
Nairobi last week were met with water cannon and tear gas before
the party agreed to postpone the demonstrations.
Frazer was dispatched to Kenya on Friday to help find a diplomatic
solution to the political fallout that led to the widespread
killings between supporters of Kibaki, a member of the large
Kikuyu tribe, and supporters of Odinga, who comes from the
minority Luo tribe.
The violence has been concentrated in Nairobi and near the Rift
Valley town of Eldoret in western Kenya, where international aid
began pouring in over the weekend.
Frazer said she hoped the mediated discussions would focus on more
than just the power struggle between Kibaki and Odinga.
"Kenya is going to have a long future of instability if, in fact,
they don't address the fundamental questions," Frazer said.
"Getting the politicians to dialogue is not just about the past
election -- it is about the future of this country and owning up
to the real crises that we are all seeing the evidence of over the
past week."
The Kenyan government said on Monday that the death toll had
reached 482 people, while the United Nations had said that about
250,000 people have been displaced by the violence since the
December 27 vote.
International election monitors have cast doubt on the legitimacy
of the vote, but the United States does not want "to push for any
solution that says there's a fresh round of elections," Frazer
said.
Kibaki has said he is ready to consider a government of national
unity. While Odinga has indicated he is willing to negotiate, he
has not backed down from his demands that Kibaki resign and hold
fresh elections.
The United States is also pushing to get a ban on live broadcasts
lifted, the U.S. official said. The country plunged into a news
blackout after the government suspended all broadcasts as violence
engulfed the capital.
Meanwhile, a convoy of food trucks left the eastern port of
Mombasa on Sunday in an effort to address the humanitarian crisis.
Twenty trucks loaded with 666 tons of food -- enough to feed at
least 70,000 people for two weeks -- set out under police escort,
the World Food Program said in a statement.
Carrying pulses, vegetable oil and a highly nutritious corn-soya
blend, the vehicles were destined for Nairobi and the Rift Valley
town of Eldoret in western Kenya, the U.N. food agency said.
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