Kenyan poll probe 'daunting'

2008-03-20 19:03

Nairobi - A commission formed to investigate Kenya's disputed election will hold closed hearings to protect witnesses and go to "extraordinary lengths" to find the truth about the poll, the panel's chairperson said on Thursday.

President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga both claimed victory in the December 27 presidential election, which sparked weeks of violence that killed more than 1 000 people before the two agreed to share power.

Observers say the vote was so flawed that it was impossible to say who won.

"I can assure you we will get to the bottom of the circumstances (that led to the disputed results)," said Johann Kriegler, a retired South African judge who will chair the panel.

"If that entails us to go to extraordinary lengths to do that, we will do that."

Not an impossible task

The commission has up to six months to produce a report to be submitted to Kibaki and made public.

This week, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused both pro-government and opposition politicians of helping to finance and organise the violence.

Kenyan and other international rights groups have made similar allegations about the involvement of politicians and businesspeople in the violence. Kenyan politicians have repeatedly denied the allegations.

Kibaki formed the seven-member commission as part of the power sharing deal, which created the new post of prime minister for Odinga.

Three of the commission's members are foreign electoral experts and the rest are Kenyan electoral experts, some of whom were involved in the presidential campaigns of Kibaki and Odinga.

Kriegler said that they have not drawn a work schedule because they had just been sworn-in on Friday, but they intended to hold public hearings and closed hearings for witnesses who feel insecure presenting their information in public.

The commission's work "is not an impossible task. It is certainly a daunting task," Kriegler told journalists. "I think Kenyans are entitled to learn what happened."

- AP