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US declines to reveal the eight
in travel ban
By KEVIN J KELLEY, NATION Correspondent, NEW YORK
08. 02. 2008
The State Department has refused to disclose the identities of
eight Kenyans who have been warned that they may be barred from
travelling to the US.
But a member of the United States team that monitored the December
27 elections has given the Senate 16 names of reputed “hardliners”
associated with both President Kibaki’s camp and the Orange
Democratic Movement. The identities of the eight individuals
cannot be disclosed “because of the confidentiality of visa
records,” State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters in
Washington on Thursday.
Overseas assets
Mr Casey indicated that the eight include “a mixture of
politicians and businessmen.”
He insisted that eight, not 10, Kenyans had been sent letters
indicating that their US visas could be revoked if investigations
determine they were linked to the post-election violence.
US embassy officials in Nairobi had earlier indicated that 10
Kenyans had been issued letters of warning.
Prof Joel Barkan, a member of the International Republican
Institute election monitoring team, meanwhile named 16 Kenyans who
should immediately be barred from entering the US.
The overseas assets of these “hardliners” should also be frozen as
part of sanctions coordinated with the United Kingdom and European
Union, he added.
Most of those on the list are political and business associates of
the President, all of them from central Kenya.
Prof Barkan also named ODM hardliners, mostly politicians from the
Rift Valley, as responsible for the violence in the region.
In regard to the outcome of the General Election, Prof Barkan said
that “while it is impossible to argue with certainty that Raila
Odinga won the election, it is possible to argue with near
certainty and evidence that Mwai Kibaki did not win. Indeed,
Kibaki may also have failed to meet the requirement that the
winning candidate received at least 25 per cent of the vote in
five of Kenya’s eight provinces, a test Raila Odinga easily passed.”
Prevent bloodshed
Also on Thursday, the US House of Representatives voted
unanimously for a freeze of all non-humanitarian aid to Kenya if
PNU and ODM prove unable to resolve the election crisis peacefully.
In a related development, US State Department’s top diplomat for
Africa says an independent investigation into the polls fiasco
could help prevent more bloodshed.
Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said Washington was
examining how to treat those who incited the ethnic violence that
has rocked Kenya since President Kibaki’s disputed re-election.
Ms Frazer did not suggest who might conduct such a probe.
Meanwhile, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka told US officials that a
power-sharing arrangement “is not a panacea” for Kenya’s crisis.
Mr Musyoka told the Nation on Thursday that he conveyed that
message in meetings with John Negroponte, the State Department’s
second-highest ranking official, and with Ms Frazer.
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