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Kenya power-sharing debate due
11/03/2008 14:34 - (SA)
Nairobi - Parliament was set to meet on Tuesday to debate a power-sharing deal to end the country's deadly political crisis, one day after the army used heavy firepower to crackdown on a group linked to bloody land clashes.
The violence on Monday in the western Mount Elgon region underlined the country's deep-seated grievances over land and inequality - issues that were laid bare in the aftermath of Kenya's disputed presidential election.
President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga both claimed victory in December 27 presidential elections, a dispute that unleashed weeks of bloodshed that killed more than 1 000 people.
Kibaki and Odinga agreed to a power-sharing deal on February 28, after a month of negotiations mediated by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, with Kibaki continuing as president and Odinga taking a new prime minister's post. Parliament would debate the bills necessary to make the deal into law on Tuesday.
800 people killed
In the past week, politicians across the divide had endorsed the power-sharing deal - indicating that parliamentarians would pass the bills quickly and without much resistance.
Once the bills become law and a new government is formed, it will face major tasks, including helping the half-million people displaced by the past two month's violence and stemming losses in what was once one of Africa's most promising economies.
Mount Elgon had seen frequent, bloody clashes over land, with at least 800 people killed and tens of thousands displaced since 2006, according to the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in the Rift Valley.
Fred Kapondi, a Mount Elgon member of parliament, said people were fleeing "aerial bombing and harassment from the army." However, Mohamud Birik, the local district commissioner, denied the army was targeting villagers.
"What the army is doing is to track down the militiamen and not intimidating or harassing residents," Birik said.
30 000 people flee their homes
Defence Department spokesperson Bogita Ongeri declined to give details of the army's Mount Elgon operation, saying only that troops were in the area to assist local officials.
Ochiemo Cheptai, who identified himself as chairperson of the Mount Elgon chapter of the Kenya Red Cross, said 30 000 people fled their homes after the army began pursuing members of the Sabaot Land Defence Force on Sunday.
Red Cross officials in Nairobi challenged the 30 000 figure, saying they had not yet assessed the numbers fleeing.
A week ago, 13 people were burned alive or hacked to death in the Mount Elgon region in an attack that police blamed on the Sabaot Land Defence Force. No one had claimed responsibility for the March 03 attack.
The Mount Elgon violence echoed other disputes in the Rift Valley that could be traced back to Kenya's colonial era, after white settlers seized land in the western Rift Valley.
- AP
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