Kenya: Odinga ready to share power

Kenyans, meanwhile, prayed for peace and an end to the political deadlock as a relative calm descended after days of violence – often ethnic-driven – that left some 300 people dead and 250,000 homeless.

“This fighting is meaningless,” said Eliakim Omondi, 17, at a Lutheran church in Nairobi’s Kibera slum that had been torched just days earlier. “I wish they would just talk and square everything so the fighting will stop.”

Pastor Dennis Meeker urged congregants kneeling before a charred cross to “be with those who tried to kill you and destroy you”. A woman dropped to the floor screaming “Forgive the people who attacked our church!”.

Mr Kibaki, re-elected by a narrow margin in a vote count that international observers say was deeply flawed, said he was willing to form a unity government after meeting with the top US diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer.

Mr Odinga rejected that proposal, but his spokesman Salim Lone said they were open to other solutions.

“A government of national unity is not acceptable to us,” he said. “But there are other formulations, such as a coalition government with genuine power sharing, that we are willing to discuss.”

He said his party differentiates between a unity government, where the president has considerable power, and a coalition government that has greater possibilities for power sharing and where Mr Kibaki need not necessarily even be president.

The other opposition proposal is to set up an interim government with a mandate to hold new presidential elections, he said.

It would be nearly impossible for Mr Kibaki to govern without opposition support. In a parliamentary election that was held the same day as the presidential election, Mr Odinga’s party won 95 of 210 legislative seats and half of Mr Kibaki’s Cabinet lost their seats.

Mr Odinga spoke with Frazer by telephone today, Lone said, but they discussed only “taking small steps that would help defuse the crisis”.

The violence eased over the weekend, although there have been isolated ethnic clashes and police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the coastal tourist town of Mombasa.

But more clashes are likely if Mr Odinga presses ahead with his call for supporters to rally on Tuesday in defiance of a new government ban. Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said that any such demonstrations would be illegal.

Mr Odinga told reporters that “If there is any bloodshed during these rallies it will be the government’s responsibility”.

Attempts to rally last week were blocked by police who fired tear gas and water cannons as well as live bullets over people’s heads. Human rights groups accuse police of excessive force and unjustified killings in the violence, but police Commissioner Hussein Ali on Sunday insisted “We have not shot anyone”.

The crisis following the election has pitted Mr Kibaki’s Kikuyu people against Kenya’s other tribes, and brought chaos to a country of 34 million people that had been one of East Africa’s most stable democracies.

In the countryside, with the continued threat of ethnic attacks, thousands fled their homes, escorted by soldiers as they streamed down roads strewn with corpses, burned out vehicles and downed power lines.

Tens of thousands of people are hungry, cut off from supplies by the crisis, which closed down shops and transport across the country. What food is available has tripled in price.

The United Nations tried to help today, sending 20 truckloads of grain, pulses and vegetable oil that had been stuck in Mombasa port. Vigilante roadblocks and other insecurity had halted shipments.

The convoy of trucks left without an expected armed police escort but a police vehicle was seen racing to catch up, about 60 miles outside Mombasa.

The food was destined for some 100,000 people “who are in dire need” in Nairobi, the capital, and troubled Eldoret city in Mr Odinga’s stronghold in the central Rift Valley, according to UN World Food Programme logistics officer Lemma Jembere.