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Kenyan leader demands president
resign
10. Feb. 2008
CHEPKIOYO, Kenya (AP) - Kenya's opposition leader has demanded
that the president resign and new elections be held, dropping a
conciliatory stance that had brought hope for a political
settlement to end weeks of postelection violence.
Raila Odinga, who accuses President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the
Dec. 27 election, spoke Saturday in his traditional power base in
western Kenya at the funeral of a slain opposition lawmaker.
Kibaki "must step down or there must be a re-election — in this I
will not be compromised," Odinga shouted in East Africa's common
language of Swahili to cheering supporters.
It was a sharp turnaround from comments he made in English two
days earlier in the capital, Nairobi. He indicated he would not
insist on Kibaki's resignation, saying "we are willing to give and
take."
The next day, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan struck an
optimistic note after mediating negotiations between the two sides,
and Odinga's own political party said a power-sharing agreement
was in the works. Annan said he hoped to complete work on a
settlement early this week.
But Odinga returned Saturday to the themes that have rallied
supporters, repeating a comparison of which he is fond: "You
cannot steal my cow, and I catch you red-handed, and then expect
me to share the milk, because the cow is mine."
In Odinga's stronghold in western Kenya, his supporters have
threatened to burn down his farm and a large molasses factory his
family owns outside Kisumu if he returns as anything less than
president.
More than 1,000 people have been killed and 300,000 forced from
their homes since the election, which Kenyan and foreign observers
say was rigged. The fighting has pitted members of Kenya's rival
ethnic groups against one another, gutted the economy and left the
country's reputation as a budding democracy and a top tourist
destination in tatters.
Only 8,000 people visited Kenya in January, far short of the
100,000 officials had expected, Ong'onga Achieng, the managing
director of the Kenya Tourist Board, told hotel owners and travel
agents meeting in the port city of Mombasa.
Saturday's funeral for legislator David Kimutai Too was the first
mass public gathering since the government lifted a ban on rallies
imposed after the election. Nearly all of Kenya's major opposition
attended.
The opposition and international community had for weeks been
urging the government to lift the ban, which had been enforced by
police using live bullets, tear gas and water cannons. Scores of
people were killed.
In lifting the ban Friday, Internal Security Minister George
Saitoti urged legislators and others to hold meetings "to promote
peace and national reconciliation" and not to use rallies as "avenues
to incite violence."
But there was nothing conciliatory in statements at Too's funeral.
Police say he was killed in a crime of passion, but the opposition
insists he was assassinated.
"The blood of David Too must run to the door of those who stole
the election," said Anyang Nyongo, secretary-general of Odinga's
Orange Democratic Movement.
"We are not going backward. We only want Raila to lead this nation,"
said Najib Balala, another leading opposition politician.
On Friday, about 5,000 people fled a makeshift camp in the western
town of Kericho, fearing there would be violence at the funeral in
Chepkioyo only 10 miles away.
Those fears were not realized, but the mood of the crowd was
deeply anti-government. Authorities say the traffic policeman who
killed Too acted because he believed the lawmaker was involved
with his girlfriend. The family denied that and accused police of
a cover-up.
In a separate incident in Sianda village in the west of the
country, the funeral of a local journalist degenerating into
stone-throwing clashes between Muslims and Christians.
Mirriam Lutomia, 28, was a sports journalist with state-owned
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation radio until her death from illness
last week. Although a Christian, she was married to a Muslim and
he had arranged for an Islamic burial.
But the mosque was pelted with stones and one Muslim man injured
during a fight between a handful of Christians and the Muslims for
possession of the coffin, which the Christians eventually carried
off. The attack was unrelated to Kenya's current political turmoil.
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