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Kenyan foes resume crisis talks
25/02/2008 12:51 - (SA)
Nairobi - Kenyan leaders resumed power-sharing talks on Monday in a bid to end the post-election political crisis in the east African state, which sparked communal violence and left more than 1 000 people dead.
Chief mediator and former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan adjourned the talks on Friday and urged President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga to give their negotiators clear instructions on the way forward.
The negotiations on a power-sharing deal have stalled on the creation and powers of a would-be prime minister, a position that currently does not exist.
"The talks have begun, both parties are sitting and talking," Nasser Ega-Musa, a UN spokesperson said.
Kenya, a nation of 37 million people, had been mired in one of its worst crises since gaining independence in 1963 after Kibaki's disputed December 27 re-election.
ODM threatens fresh demonstrations
More than 1 000 people had died in political and ethnic violence and hundreds of thousands displaced, mainly the capital's slums and western region regarded as the country's breadbasket.
Relative stability had returned in the country, although the opposition had threatened fresh demonstrations on Wednesday if Kibaki failed to recall parliament to enact constitutional amendments in order to share power.
Odinga's opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) insisted on a powerful premier while the government had offered a non-executive office.
On Sunday, the government said both sides had agreed on the establishment of the post of a prime minister and two deputies, and that the premier would co-ordinate the performance of government ministries as well as perform duties assigned by the president.
In addition, a "coalition" government would cease to exist if parliament was dissolved or one partner pulled out, according to a government statement.
The crisis, which had affected the economy, had tapped into simmering resentment over land, poverty and the dominance of the Kikuyu, Kibaki's tribe, in Kenyan politics and business since independence from Britain in 1963.
Over the weekend, respected former parliament speaker Francis Ole Kaparo said Kibaki and Odinga hardliners had overseen the near-destruction of the country.
"I know them (Kibaki and Odinga) well and I know how difficult it is for them to place the interests of this nation first," said Kaparo, who was parliament speaker between 1993 to 2007.
- AFP
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