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Peacemaker Tutu slams Kenya
elite
04. Jan 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu rounded on Kenya's
ruling elite Friday, saying its people are sick of the corruption
that has plagued the nation.
Tutu, in Kenya to try to mediate a solution to the violence that
followed December 27 elections, said: "People have been incensed
by the level of corruption."
He spoke to CNN as an uneasy calm hung over the Kenyan capital
Friday, after almost a week of violence that, according to
government figures, has left at least 300 people dead and up to
75,000 people internally displaced.
Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, added he was still hopeful a
diplomatic solution could be found to ending the violence that
accompanied the disputed election result.
The opposition Orange Democratic Movement on Friday called for a
new presidential election to be held.
Anyang Nyongo, secretary general of the ODM, said the country
should start preparing "for a new election of the president."
"This is about a democracy and justice," Nyongo told The
Associated Press. "We shall continue to defend and promote the
right of Kenyans so that the democratic process should be
fulfilled."
Kenya's electoral commission said President Mwai Kibaki had won
the vote, but opposition leader Raila Odinga alleged it was rigged
and international observations said it was flawed.
On Thursday, Attorney General Amos Wako called for an independent
probe of the counting.
Odinga's ODM once again wanted supporters to join a demonstration
Friday in Uhuru Park, but CNN's Kim Norgaard said a heavy police
presence was preventing protesters from making their way to the
site.
A rally the previous day had been prevented by police who blocked
the way with tear gas and water cannons.
The rally was banned by Kenya's government, which had prohibited
political gatherings before the December 27 elections.
Many businesses remained closed Friday although some office
workers were returning to work. In Kibera, the country's largest
slum, shops remained shut and there were small groups of
protesters gathering.
"We are trying to go to Uhuru Park today," said Joshua Okoth,
standing with a group of young men by the smoking remains of a
former food market. "Let people die and then there will be a
change," he added.
Reports of violence, looting and fires were sporadic in Nairobi's
sprawling slums, including Kibera.
Video from Nairobi's outskirts showed streets littered with broken
glass, overturned Coca-Cola crates and, in some places, fires. One
man carried a sign that read: "Shame on you Kibaki you raped our
democracy."
The International Red Cross Friday said it was sending 15 staff to
the country to assess how to give the Kenyan Red Cross enough
provisions to sustain at least 100,000 people with basics for
several weeks, AP reported.
Meanwhile, children's bodies piled up in a Nairobi morgue,
churches burned and police on horseback chased pedestrians through
the streets.
"What we have just seen defies description," Odinga told
journalists after visiting one Nairobi morgue Thursday. "We can
only describe it as genocide on a grand scale."
Earlier this week, the ODM posted on its Web site a call for
Kibaki to protect all Kenyans.
Kibaki narrowly won re-election with 51.3 percent of the vote,
while Odinga garnered 48.7 percent, the country's election
commission announced Sunday.
Tutu said ethnic differences should not be allowed to split the
country apart. "Our diversity is not something to divide us," he
told CNN.
He met with Odinga and other opposition officials Thursday and
with Kibaki on Friday.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also has sent diplomat
Jendayi Frazer, who was to arrive in Kenya on Friday and meet with
Kibaki, Odinga and other political leaders, State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday.
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