Annan brings Kenya’s Kibaki, Raila to negotiating table


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Peace-maker Kofi Annan Thursday met Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki and his main opposition challenger, Raila Odinga, as he intensified reconciliation effort in the East African country.

Peace-maker Kofi Annan Thursday met Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki and his main opposition challenger, Raila Odinga, as he intensified reconciliation effort in the East African country.

Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General, heading the African Union (AU) peace initiative team, met Kibaki in the morning before holding a separate meeting with Odinga.

Later in the afternoon, the renowned peace-maker brought the warring factions to the negotiating table at the Office of the President, in central Nairobi. A development lauded by Kenyans.

Teamwork

The three-some AU peace team, led by Annan, include former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa and ex-Mozambican First Lady, Graca Marcel, now the wife of former South African President, Nelson Mandela.

Also working with the team, albeit on the sidelines, are former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, who has been in and out of the country since the post-poll chaos broke out three weeks ago, and UN-HABITAT Director, Anna Tibaijuka, a Tanzanian, stationed at the UN agency’s headquarters in Nairobi.

Chissano was in the team of four former African presidents – Kitumile Masire (Botswana), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia) and Mkapa, who spear-headed the reconciliation effort before African Union Chairman John Kuffuor of Ghana took over and passed the baton to Annan.

A shrewd diplomat, Annan who arrived Nairobi Tuesday night, set up the team’s secretariat Wednesday and spent the rest of the day in shuttle diplomacy.

His principal objective

He met the newly-elected Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende and other stakeholders, sending out feelers on the role parliament could play in breaking the stalemate and the constitutional implications.

His principal mission is to get Kibaki and Raila to the negotiating table with a view to finding a lasting solution to the imbroglio that has claimed over 600 lives and left 255,000 Kenyans homeless.

Trouble started 30 December, as the now disgraced Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) chairman, Samuel Kivuitu, declared incumbent Kibaki the winner in controversial circumstances. Kivuitu complicated the matter when he later said he ‘did not know’ if Kibaki won.

The Odinga-led opposition rejected the results, claiming the entire exercise was marred by massive irregularities.

Dismissing the poll as a “sham and fraud,” Odinga demanded Kibaki’s
resignation and a presidential re-run. But Kibaki, a London-trained economist, 76, maintained he was the winner and refused, prompting international intervention.

Feeling cheated, opposition supporters, mainly youthful Kenyans, turned their anger on Kibaki’s supporters, burning cars, houses farms and looting. A number of demonstrators have also been gunned down by anti-riot policemen.

As the peace initiative entered a crucial stage Thursday evening, with protagonists – Kibaki and Raila meeting face-to-face – the main objective was to break the impasse through the formation of a government of national unity or a power-sharing set up in which the post of prime minister could be created for Raila.

Kenyans breathed a sigh of relief Thursday as the warring factions engaged in constructive dialogue, lauding Annan for taking the talks a notch higher.
Thursday’s talks were also the first round in efforts aimed at national political reconciliation.

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