|
Don't push us - Kenya
17/02/2008 16:29 - (SA)
Nairobi - The Kenyan government on Sunday issued a veiled warning to the United States not to put "a gun to anybody's head", on the eve of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to push for a power-sharing deal.
Rice is due in Nairobi on Monday for meetings with President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose dispute over who won the December 27 presidential election plunged once stable Kenya into violence in which more than 1 000 people have died.
"We encourage our friends to support us, to encourage us, but not to make any mistake by putting a gun to anybody's head and say 'either or' because that cannot work," Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula told reporters.
US President George W Bush called for a power-sharing deal at the start of his Africa tour on Saturday and said he was sending Rice to Kenya to support Kofi Annan's mediation, which appears deadlocked over a proposed coalition government.
While Wetangula did not specifically mention the United States, he said: "Those who support us should avoid judgmental language that tends to appear like we are being told 'you must do this or you must do that'. "We will find a solution, and as Kenyans and we are committed to that."
Kibaki's camp has balked at a power-sharing deal, saying in talks led by Annan that it was willing to include opposition members in government, but under the strong executive leadership of the president, according to a government official.
After initially welcoming Kibaki's re-election, the US backtracked in the face of mounting evidence of flaws in the presidential poll and is now pressing Kibaki to agree to a coalition with Odinga.
The United States considers Kenya a strategic ally in the fight against militant extremists and a key player in resolving conflicts in neighbouring Somalia and Sudan.
- AFP
|
News
