https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / All News RSS ← Back
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Embed Video

Kenya says forcing a deal would be a mistake

18th February 2008

By: Reuters

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

Kenya's foreign minister said on Sunday the solution to a post-election crisis lay with Kenyans and any outside attempt to force through a deal would be a mistake.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due in Nairobi on Monday to support mediation efforts led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan.

"We encourage our friends to support us and not to make any mistake of putting a gun to anybody's head and saying 'either' 'or' because that cannot work," Moses Wetangula told reporters.

Advertisement

"Even if we get visitors to help us in any way possible, the answer to the problem in Kenya lies with Kenyans themselves."

Annan is trying to end a dispute over President Mwai Kibaki's re-election that erupted into bloodshed, killing 1,000 people and leaving 300,000 homeless.

Advertisement

The crisis affecting an ally in the West's fight to counter al Qaeda has dented Kenya's democratic credentials, driven tourists away and disrupted supplies of food and fuel to countries in the region.

Kibaki's team has resisted what it views as outside attempts to interfere in the affairs of a country that gained independence from Britain in 1963.

"We have many examples where hurried, rushed agreements ... have collapsed as soon as they are signed, before the ink has dried," Wetangula said.

On a tour of Africa, U.S. President George W. Bush said he did not want to dictate how to bring an end to Kenya's political violence, but wanted only to help push along Annan's mediation.

On Saturday, Bush threw his weight behind a power-sharing deal to end a stand-off over which man won the presidential election on December 27.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga says he was robbed of victory by his former ally Kibaki. Kibaki maintains he won fairly.

A survey in the Sunday Nation said 61.3 percent of Kenyans favour a "grand coalition", an idea advocated by Annan. Of those, 31.3 percent said it would resolve the political crisis because power would be shared equally.

Of the 38.7 percent against a grand coalition, 23.3 percent said it would not work because both parties were power-hungry. A further 20.2 percent said the differences between Kibaki and Odinga would make it impossible for them to work together.

U.S. officials have threatened to sanction any individuals seeking to obstruct peace moves. Earlier this month, Washington threatened to bar entry to the United States to eight unnamed politicians and business leaders accused of stoking violence.

Britain's envoy to Kenya, Adam Wood, was publicly admonished by Wetangula for saying the government did not reflect the will of the Kenyan people.


EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE      FEEDBACK

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here


About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options

Email Registration Success

Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to one or more of Creamer Media’s email newsletters. You should start receiving the email newsletters in due course.

Our email newsletters may land in your junk or spam folder. To prevent this, kindly add newsletters@creamermedia.co.za to your address book or safe sender list. If you experience any issues with the receipt of our email newsletters, please email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za