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Kenyan opposition leader walks
fine line between hardline supporters and compromise
10. Feb. 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Kenya's opposition leader was involved in a
delicate balancing act Sunday, promising not to betray hardline
supporters while assuring international mediators he was ready to
accept a political solution to end weeks of postelection violence.
«We are not going to betray our supporters, but as far as giving
and taking (is concerned), we are prepared,» Raila Odinga told
reporters as he left church.
He accuses President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the Dec. 27 election,
but both sides have come under enormous international pressure to
accept a solution proposed by an international mediation team.
However, Odinga still had strong words for Kibaki's administration
Sunday. He accused the government of hypocrisy for promising to
bring murder charges against a policeman who was filmed shooting
two unarmed protesters then kicking one of them as he lay dying,
but not taking action against other officers.
«How many more police officers have killed and not been caught on
camera?» he asked.
Scores of bullet-riddled bodies have turned up at morgues after
police fired into demonstrating crowds and heavily populated slum
areas.
Odinga has given off mixed messages in recent days, telling
supporters on Saturday that Kibaki «must step down or there must
be a re-election _ in this I will not be compromised.
Two days earlier, he indicated he would not insist on Kibaki's
resignation, saying «we are willing to give and take.
On Friday, 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.
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. 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.
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