NAIROBI, Feb 18: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Kenya’s feuding parties on Monday to hurry up with a pact to end a post-election crisis that has killed 1,000 people and dented their nation’s global status.
“The time for a political settlement was yesterday,” Rice said after meeting separately with President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga during her one-day visit.
“The current stalemate and the circumstances are not going to permit business as usual with the United States or with any other part of the international community.”
Dispatched to Kenya by President George W. Bush during his Africa tour, Rice was the most senior US official to visit since the disputed Dec-27 vote triggered protests and ethnic conflict that also displaced more than 300,000.“They need to have a power-sharing arrangement ... There needs to be a coalition,” she said, echoing the line being pushed by mediator and former UN chief Kofi Annan.
Odinga says Kibaki, for whom he once served in cabinet, stole the 2007 election through fraud.
Kibaki’s team says its man won fairly and points to the official declaration by the election board.
The election crisis took the lid off grievances between different communities over wealth, land and power that date back to British colonial rule and have been aggravated by Kenyan politicians since then, especially at election time.
KENYANS IMPATIENT: Government officials have become increasingly prickly over foreign pressure. On the eve of Rice’s visit, Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula warned that nobody should “make any mistake of putting a gun to anybodys head”.
But Rice, noting she had been “especially moved” listening to Kenyan civil society and business representatives, said the pressure was coming from within not abroad.
“Kenya is a friend. Kenya is also an independent and proud country ... So this is not a matter of dictating a solution to Kenyans,” she said. “What I hear is the impatience and insistence of Kenyans that this is resolved.”
Both sides of Kenya’s political divide have agreed to an independent review of the contested ballot but not what to do about it or what form a shared administration might take.
Having missed Annan’s target for a deal by last week, negotiators are due to resume talks on Tuesday.
Government officials have said the only power-sharing being considered is giving opposition members ministries in Kibaki’s half-filled cabinet.
—Agencies
After meeting Rice, Odinga gave a news conference outlining his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party’s proposals for a new position of prime minister, shared executive authority, and a fresh presidential election within two years.
“This is not a love affair. It’s something they must do, as the whole world is telling them,” Odinga said, when asked if Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) would agree.
Earlier, Kibaki’s office issued a statement after his meeting with Rice, saying he remained committed to dialogue and “will continue looking for an amicable solution”.
Though emphasis at the moment is on a possible power-sharing deal, many Kenyans also want solutions to complicated, underlying issues such as wealth inequalities, land policies, and the need for constitutional reform.
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