Odinga rejects unity gov't in Kenya
Updated: 2008-01-06 17:02
NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga on Sunday rejected an offer from President Mwai Kibaki to form a unity government to end an electoral dispute that has sparked deadly ethnic violence. Odinga said instead that he wants a mediator to negotiate a settlement.
 Protestors run away as riot police chase them in Kibera slums, Saturday, Jan. 5, 2008, as a government statement said Saturday that Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki is ready to form 'a government of national unity' to help resolve disputed elections that caused deadly riots. Some 300 people have been killed and around 100,000 made homeless in violent clashes since the recent presidential vote, bringing chaos to this east African nation, and ethnic divisions pitting some tribes against President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu people. [Agencies] |
Odinga told a news conference that Kibaki, declared re-elected by a narrow margin in a vote count that international observers said was flawed, "cannot offer us anything because he did not win the election."
"There cannot be peace without justice," Odinga said. "We want a mediator. We want a properly negotiated settlement, not a coalition government."
He welcomed the expected arrival this week of Ghanian President John Kufuor, current chairman of the African Union, to mediate.
Kibaki offered to form a government of national unity on Saturday during talks with the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer. Frazer was still in Nairobi on Sunday, but it was not known whether she would meet again with the rival politicians.
As Kibaki and Odinga faced growing pressure to compromise, the violence that has killed more than 300 people across the country appeared to ease. The crisis following the Dec. 27 election has pitted Kibaki's Kikuyu people against Kenya's other tribes, and brought chaos to a country that had been one of east Africa's most stable democracies.
At a small church in Nairobi's Kibera slum that was set ablaze during the crisis, 30 people gathered before a charred crucifix surrounded by burned-out stained glass windows.
"We ask you to be with those who tried to kill you and destroy you," the Lutheran pastor told the congregation, standing because smashed pews were piled up in the back of the church. "Forgive them Lord because they know not what they do."
In the countryside, with the continued threat of ethnic attacks, thousands fled their homes, escorted by soldiers as they streamed down roads strewn with corpses, burned out vehicles and downed power lines.
Desperate Kenyans urged Kibaki and Odinga to compromise.
"Sit down, find a way out," said Christopher Kingua, as he fled his home near Eldoret in the western highlands, where bodies were spilling out of packed morgues. "Our homes, our people, our property has been destroyed."
After meeting with Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Kibaki said he was "ready to form a government of national unity that would not only unite Kenyans but would also help in the healing and reconciliation process," according to the director of the presidential news service, Isaiya Kabira.
Odinga had softened his stance after two meetings with Frazer, unexpectedly withdrawing his call for Kibaki to step down, his spokesman, Salim Lone, told The Associated Press on Saturday night.
But on Sunday the opposition leader told reporters, "We are not interested in Kibaki's position. We want a durable solution."
There was no immediate statement from Frazer on her 90-minute talk with Kibaki or her two meetings with Odinga.
It would be nearly impossible for Kibaki to govern without opposition support. In parliamentary balloting, Odinga's party won 95 of 210 legislative seats and half of Kibaki's Cabinet lost their seats.
More than 300 people have been killed and 250,000 forced from their homes in protests and clashes since this country of 34 million went to the polls.
Makeshift roadblocks were set up along main roads by young men enraged over Kibaki's re-election.
"Kibaki should quit office if he is mindful of dying Kenyans," said Nelson Onchiri, who was manning a roadblock of piled rocks along a highway in western Nyanza province, forcing hundreds of cars to stop. He opened the road after an opposition lawmaker appealed to him to let people through.
In Nairobi's Mathare slum, several shacks were set ablaze and residents attacked each other with machetes. One man said people from Odinga's Luo tribe were fighting a gang from Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe. Police opened fire and one man was shot in the head and killed, according to an AP Television News cameraman.
A machete-wielding crowd then surrounded the police, forcing them to flee with three wounded people, including a man with half his leg hacked away.
Looters tried to break into a supermarket in the capital, but police fired live rounds in the air.
"We shot in the air to scare them away," said Mark Mwara, an officer in charge of the area. "They are still angry and they will try again."
Thousands in and around Nairobi's slums — home to a third of the capital's population — lined up for food after days of riots left them cut off and shortages have led to major price increases. In a fairground on the outskirts of the Kibera shantytown, volunteers were handing out sacks of maize flour and laundry detergent to women and children.
Kaltuma Musa, 12, who was among hundreds of children thronging a volunteer handing out cookies, said she came because she heard there was food.
Musa popped one cookie in her mouth and put another in her pocket.
"I'll take this one home," Musa said. "It's for my mother."
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