Kofi Annan arrives in Kenya as mediator
Police fired tear gas to break up pro-government demonstrations in Kenya today in advance of the arrival of former UN chief Kofi Annan on a peacemaking mission.
Mr Annan, who will hold talks with disputed president Mwai Kibaki and his main rival Raila Odinga, is seen as the main hope for getting a settlement that will end weeks of violence in which more than 600 people have died.
Crowds in the capital Nairobi changed “Kibaki is our president!” before riot police broke up the gathering.
The election last month returned Mr Kibaki to power for a second five-year term, with official results putting opposition leader Mr Odinga second in the closest presidential race in Kenya’s history.
Mr Odinga accused Mr Kibaki of stealing the vote, and protests exploded into riots and ethnic fighting.
Foreign and local election observers have said the vote count was deeply flawed. Although the electoral chief pronounced Mr Kibaki the victor, he later said he had been pressured to do so and did not know who won.
Efforts at international mediation so far have failed.
Annan was due to arrive later today to try to bring the two sides together, as US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger urged a political settlement.
“The tragedy Kenya is now suffering, and the extremely bitter polarisation of Kenyan society, demands that all leaders and institutions speak in a responsible, respectful and dignified tone,” Ranneberger said in a statement.
The election has tapped into feuds that resurface regularly at election time in Kenya. But never before has the anger been so prolonged or taken so many lives.
Several people were beaten and hacked to death with machetes in a Nairobi slum over the weekend.
Yesterday Mr Odinga returned to his western stronghold for the first time since the election, calling for a new vote.
“People have been asking me to give them guns but I’m giving them votes,” he told thousands of cheering supporters in Kisumu, near the village where he was born.
“You can see how our bodies are lying there dead because they were killed by ruthless police,” Mr Odinga said, pointing to seven bodies brought in to the stadium where the rally took place.
As Mr Kibaki’s becomes increasingly entrenched, the opposition’s best hope may rest in working out a power-sharing agreement that could make Mr Odinga prime minister or vice president.
Odinga has called for another “peaceful protest” on Thursday, saying, “let them bring their guns and we will face them.”
The protest will take place in defiance of a ban and despite the deaths of at least 24 people in three days of protests last week – most blamed on police.
