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UN chief calls on Kenya
rivals to stop violence
01.02.2008
NAIROBI (AFP) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon called Friday for Kenya's
feuding political leaders to stop weeks of deadly violence sparked
by disputed presidential polls, and to resolve the crisis through
peaceful dialogue.
"My message to the government and people of Kenya is to stop this
violence and to solve all these issues ... through dialogue in a
peaceful manner," Ban said to journalists in Nairobi, where he
added his weight to mediation efforts led by his predecessor Kofi
Annan.
"You are taking a very important historical responsibility at this
critically important junction," the UN secretary general said,
sitting alongside Annan and representatives of negotiating teams
for President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Ban arrived in Kenya Friday in the wake of turmoil sparked by
disputed presidential elections on December 27 that sparked weeks
of unrest in which almost 1,000 have died and some 300,000 have
been displaced.
But as mediation efforts continued, so did the unrest, as police
shot dead one man in the volatile western opposition stronghold of
Kisumu as they dispersed a group of demonstrators.
"The man was shot because he was in group that wanted to attack
Kondele district police station," a police commander said.
"We were only expressing our emotions peacefully when police
opened fire and killed one of us," said Simon Okelo, a protestor.
In Nairobi, Ban called on both sides to work to stem the violence,
after more than a month of post-poll protests now mixed with
latent economic, land and ethnic disputes.
"What I'd like to ask you is to look beyond these individual
interests, look beyond the party lines," he said.
The crisis has shattered the image and economy of the formerly
stable east African nation that is a refuge for many displaced by
neighbouring conflicts.
Annan earlier resumed talks between three representatives each of
Kibaki and Odinga after postponing them the previous day when an
opposition lawmaker was shot dead in the western town of Eldoret.
The killing -- the second slaying of an opposition lawmaker in two
days -- set off further clashes in the volatile western region.
Odinga's party said the killing of opposition MP David Kimutai Too
in Eldoret Thursday had been a political assassination, although
police described it as a crime of passion.
Odinga visited Too's body Friday, after it was flown to Nairobi,
and accused the government of involvement in his killing and that
of opposition MP Melitus Mugabe Were in Nairobi early Tuesday.
"Our charge is that the government has killed them: let them
disprove this and accept this offer of an independent inquiry," he
said.
Odinga said Thursday that the two MP killings were "part of a plot"
to reduce his Orange Democratic Movement's (ODM) majority in
parliament.
The ODM secured 99 seats in the legislative elections that
coincided with the presidential poll, making it the largest single
party but short of an overall majority. Kibaki's Party of National
Unity (PNU) won 43 seats.
Ban met with Odinga in Nairobi on Friday, after meeting with
Kibaki on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Ethiopia the
previous day.
Members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe suffered heavily in the first
wave of violence at the hands of Odinga's Luo tribe and other
ethnic groups, but have since carried out numerous revenge attacks.
Arsonists burned down more than 50 houses overnight in revenge
attacks in western Kenya, police said Friday.
Nyanza police chief Anthony Kibuchi said the fires broke out only
hours after a security meeting was held in the area with the
warring communities.
"Officers are now patrolling the area to avert any revenge attack,"
he said.
An ambulance belonging to a hospital near Kisumu was also burnt by
rowdy youths in opposition stronghold Kisumu, he added.
The top US Africa envoy Jendayi Frazer said that Kenya's violence
had involved acts of "ethnic cleansing," after a visit there, and
the UN Security Council has called for both sides to end the
bloodshed.
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