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Kenyan opposition backs Kibaki
14/09/2007 08:31 - (SA)
Nairobi - President Mwai Kibaki's re-election bid received a boost on Thursday after the party he ousted from power five years ago said it would support him in elections set for December.
The Kenya African National Union's endorsement move came hours after parliament took steps that could shield its leaders from an anti-corruption commission Kibaki had established.
Kibaki won elections in 2002 promising to end the corruption that had become endemic under the 24-year rule of his predecessor, President Daniel arap Moi. But Kibaki soon found himself accused of doing too little to root out corruption.
Uhuru Kenyatta, the party's chairperson and 2002 presidential candidate, said Thursday's endorsement of Kibaki by Moi's Kenya African National Union followed Moi's own endorsement of Kibaki.
Moi 'barred' from extending power
Moi's party, which ruled Kenya for 39 years before Kibaki defeated it in 2002, would not have its own presidential candidate in this year's election.
However, Kenyatta said his party would field candidates for parliament and local government, and hoped to govern in coalition with Kibaki's party and other groups.
It would be the first Kenyan election in which an incumbent president faced a credible challenge. When Kibaki ran in 2002, Moi was constitutionally barred from extending his 24 years in power. Moi won in 1992 and 1997 amid vote rigging allegations.
Kibaki's main challengers were former cabinet ministers Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka. Musyoka's Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya, or ODM-Kenya, had been in talks with Kenyatta's party about forming a coalition before Thursday's announcement.
Kenyatta, Kibaki 'members of largest tribe'
In recent months, the Kenya African National Union, which was the largest opposition party in parliament and Kenya's oldest political party, had been split into two. The other faction had advocated merging with Odinga's party.
Kenyatta - a son of Kenya's first president and independence hero, Jomo Kenyatta - came second to Kibaki in 2002. His faction's decision to endorse Kibaki seemed to factor in tribal loyalties, which played a big part in Kenyan politics. Kenyatta and Kibaki were members of Kenya's largest tribe, the Kikuyu.
Late on Wednesday, parliament voted to remove the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission's powers to investigate and recover stolen money and property in corruption cases dating before it was formed in May 2003, reports said on Thursday. That could shield Moi and former high-ranking members of previous governments.
Parliament's unanimous vote on amending the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, however, still had to go through another vote and then Kibaki had to endorse the legislation before it became effective.
Anti-graft campaigners had in the past questioned whether the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission was effective, noting that despite serious allegations of high-level corruption in Kibaki's administration, no minister had been charged.
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