Kenya wobbles over amnesty

2008-06-03 12:16

Nairobi - Kenya's prime minister openly dissented with the president on Tuesday in a row over amnesty for post-election crimes, showing the fragility of the coalition running east Africa's largest economy.

In another sign of the lack of unity in the government, newspapers splashed pictures of the pair's security guards scuffling in an embarrassing dispute on a national holiday.

President Mwai Kibaki's government and Prime Minister Raila Odinga's opposition came together in April to form a "Grand Coalition" after violence that killed at least 1 300 people and uprooted 300 000 in the wake of a disputed December election.

The coalition steadied the economy and ended the worst violence. But it had been characterised by rivalry, high running costs and slow momentum to carry out reforms.

Electoral justice

On one of the most contentious issues - a proposed amnesty for those involved in post-election violence - Kibaki vowed at the weekend that nobody would be spared.

"Those who took part in wanton acts of violence by engaging in senseless murder of innocent citizens, destruction of property or rape will face the full force of the law," he said.

But that brought a lengthy riposte on Tuesday from Odinga, who wanted an amnesty and said most people police were targeting were supporters of his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

"The vast majority of youths who are in custody killed or raped no one. They were defending democracy and electoral justice in the only manner available to them: demonstrations," he said in a statement, calling for their release.

"The protests turned bloody primarily because of a grossly disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by security agents, who had been given orders to shoot to kill."

Political differences

Police said 137 people had been charged with capital offences, while 4 600 petty crimes like theft and looting had also been dealt with by Kenyan courts since the violence that paralysed the nation during January and February.

One policeman, caught on TV shooting a protester as he laid down, had been charged.

The amnesty issue had laid bare wide political differences in government between Kibaki's Party of National Unity that was dominated by Kikuyus, Kenya's largest tribe, and Odinga's ODM drawn from his Luos and an array of other ethnic groups.

A scuffle between Kibaki's and Odinga's security details at a weekend event commemorating Kenya's 1963 attainment of self-governance was widely photographed in Tuesday papers, prompting an apology from Kenya's police chief.

Analysts and diplomats generally believed the coalition would hold both in the interests of peace and, more pragmatically, because it had given so many sides the chance to grab a piece of the national cake by participating in government.

"Kenyans are desperate to see this coalition survive," wrote commentator Macharia Gaitho in the Daily Nation newspaper.

- Reuters