AU criticises Kibaki
14/03/2008 19:54  - (SA)  

3 Kenyan lions speared to death Six die in Kenya crackdown ODM warns Kenyan govt 61 Kenyan militia members held Hundreds flee Kenyan region E Africa weathers Kenya crisis

Addis Ababa - President Kibaki came in for the sharpest - if diplomatically stated - criticism on Friday as the African Union released its first report on Kenya's deadly election dispute.

Former Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister Olu Adeniji said that, however, it will be "daunting" to find out who is responsible for the election crisis. Both Kibaki and his main rival, Raila Odinga, claimed to have won a December 27 presidential vote international observers say was deeply flawed, and their dispute touched off weeks of violence that killed more than 1 000 people.

While the politicians have now agreed to share power, Kenya has only begun what is likely to be a long and difficult process of addressing problems worsened by the violence, including simmering land disputes and resentment of Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group, long dominant in politics and the economy.

"Part of the problem that created the hold up (in resolving the crisis) is the fact that a government had already been put in place by President Mwai Kibaki," Adeniji told journalists after presenting the mediators' first report to the AU Peace and Security Council.

Days after his hasty swearing-in ceremony, Kibaki named part of his Cabinet incorporating another presidential aspirant as vice president but excluding any member of the main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement, that Odinga leads.

Now the Kenyan parliament is preparing to vote on laws to implement the power sharing agreement struck February 28. Odinga was to become prime minister.

On Thursday, Kibaki appointed a six-member panel to investigate the elections, as both sides had agreed to in the power sharing deal.

"Determining the culpability of some of the participants is going to be a daunting task," Adeniji said.

The political violence has decreased, but parts of Kenya continue to see clashes.

Adeniji said that the AU has pledged US$155 770) to the mediation process, but declined to say how much had been spent so far. He said mediators will now focus on getting the parties to agree on how to address economic issues, job creation and settle land disputes.

On Tuesday, the top US diplomat in Africa, Jendayi Frazer told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Africa that the US is committing $25m to help peace and reconciliation in Kenya, and people displaced and affected by the violence to restore their lives

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