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Kenya: African mediators 'OK'
16/01/2008 10:04 - (SA)
Nairobi - In an about-face on Wednesday, Kenya's government said African mediators were welcome, reversing its earlier rejection of foreign mediation since the crisis over disputed presidential elections.
"I wish to point out that the government welcomes eminent African statesmen and personalities to Kenya to facilitate dialogue between political leaders in the search for a lasting solution to the current political situation in the country," said Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula in a statement.
Wetangula said ex-United Nations chief Kofi Annan, former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa and Graca Machel, former South African leader Nelson Mandela's wife, could come as "agreed by the government and the ODM".
Previously, mediators had been given the cold shoulder by the government since evidence of irregularities in President Mwai Kibaki's re-election sparked international concern and Kenya's worst crisis in 25 years.
Annan due to arrive in Nairobi
Defeated opposition candidate Raila Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) had refused to recognise Kibaki, who had nevertheless gone ahead and named his closest allies in a new cabinet.
Annan had been due to arrive in Nairobi to take over mediation efforts on Tuesday, but his office announced in a statement that his trip was postponed by a few days because he had been taken ill "with a severe flu".
On Monday, Roads and Public Works Minister John Michuki, a hardline member of Kibaki's cabinet, had urged Annan to stay home.
He said: "If Kofi Annan is coming, he is not coming at our invitation. We won the elections so we do not see the point for anyone coming to mediate power-sharing."
African Union Chairperson John Kufuor also left Kenya last week with little to show after a brief visit. He had cancelled an earlier trip amid reports that Kibaki would refuse to see him.
South Africa's Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu was one of the first to fly after violence broke out in Kenya, but got a frosty reception from the government, which stressed he had not been invited.
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