Kenya's president rejects new elections
Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki, addressing countrymen who fled blazing homes and mobs wielding machetes and arrows, has rejected demands for a new election or recount.
Political violence has dogged the country since the December 27 vote that the opposition accuses Mr Kibaki of stealing.
There was little sign yesterday of softening by either Mr Kibaki, who dampened hopes for a power-sharing compromise by filling several Cabinet posts with his allies a day earlier, or his chief rival Raila Odinga, who has refused a meeting with the president.
More than 500 people have been killed in violence that in some areas has pitted other tribes against Mr Kibaki’s Kikuyu, long dominant in politics and business.
The vote “is finished and anybody who thinks they can turn it around should know that it’s not possible and it will never be possible”, Mr Kibaki said in Swahili during a visit to Burnt Forest in western Kenya, his first trip to a troublespot since the violence erupted on December 29.
His tone was much sharper than in his official statements to the press, in which he focused on dialogue and harmony. He repeated his call for any dispute to be settled in court – Kenya’s high court is loaded with Kibaki appointees.
Mr Kibaki also urged thousands of refugees camped at a school in Burnt Forest not to abandon their land.
“Do not be afraid. The government will protect you,” he said. “Nobody is going to be chased from where they live.”
However, exactly that scenario has already affected some 255,000 Kenyans.
Yesterday, women with suitcases on their heads and frightened children grabbing at their skirts searched for transport to get away from Kisumu, the main western town where Mr Odinga has strong support and those seen as government supporters have been attacked.
On the road to the capital Nairobi, dozens of angry youths brandishing sticks burned tyres to block the route. “If elections fail, violence prevails!” they shouted.
In Nairobi, Kenya’s poorest residents in the slums waited in line for rations after the violence cut off regular supplies of food and water. In the Kibera slum, hundreds of people gathered for food and other supplies, but the crowds turned rowdy.
Several men stole sacks of corn flour as volunteers tried to hand the food out.
The crisis has brought chaos to a country that had been one of east Africa’s most stable democracies.
The chairman of the African Union, Ghana’s President John Kufuor, was in Kenya to mediate, an effort supported by the US and Britain.
It was unclear whether the new tension would force a compromise or increase the anger and distrust that has so far kept Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga from even agreeing to talk to one another.
There were indications yesterday that Mr Kibaki hoped to resolve the crisis through direct talks with the opposition. After a meeting with Mr Kufuor, the government issued a statement saying Mr Kibaki “assured President Kufuor that he had already initiated a process of dialogue with other Kenyan leaders”.
Mr Kibaki has resisted outside mediation while the opposition insists it will not negotiate without it.
In another statement, Kibaki said he was “committed to dialogue with all parties” and indicated there still was room for Mr Odinga’s party in his full Cabinet.
A day earlier, he had filled half the Cabinet seats, giving none to Mr Odinga’s party even though the two sides were expected to discuss power sharing.
Mr Kufuor also met Mr Odinga yesterday, as did four former African heads of state.
Mr Odinga said he had told the statesmen that: “We want peace to return to our country … There cannot be lasting peace without justice."
