Kenyan opposition rejects Kibaki offer for unity government

January 5, 2008 (NAIROBI) — President Mwai Kibaki said on Saturday he was ready to form a national unity government to end Kenya’s crisis but the opposition brushed the offer aside, saying he must step down and negotiate.

After a week of political violence and tribal clashes since the disputed December 27 election, Kibaki said he would accept a unity government “that would not only unite Kenyans but would also help in the healing and reconciliation process”.

The opposition said the offer changed nothing and only internationally-mediated talks would end turmoil that has killed at least 300 people and forced 250,000 from their homes.

“My position has not changed. We want a negotiated settlement. Our starting point is that Kibaki is there illegally. He should not come to the negotiating table as the president,” opposition leader Raila Odinga told reporters.

Odinga’s spokesman Salim Lone told Reuters that without international mediation, the opposition had no faith that any agreement would be adhered to.

Civil society groups called on all Kenyans to gather at places of worship on Sunday to pray for peace.

Kibaki’s office issued his offer after a private meeting with the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer.

Her mission was the latest attempt at mediation by world powers horrified by the unrest in what had been seen as one of the continent’s most stable democracies, and an ally of the West in its efforts to counter al Qaeda.

Odinga, who had appeared on course to win the vote until Kibaki was handed a narrow victory last Sunday, says the election was rigged. International observers say the election fell short of democratic standards.

Odinga appeared to have ruled out a national unity government even before Kibaki’s statement.

“We know how governments of national unity operate. We have been there before with Kibaki. That is a way to cheat Kenyans of their rights,” he said after meeting Frazer earlier.

DISTRUST

Odinga helped Kibaki win power in a 2002 election, but says the president broke a promise to award him a new prime minister’s position after the victory. Their mutual distrust is a key obstacle to ending the standoff.

The president’s office said Frazer had “commended President Kibaki for reaching out to the opposition in order to stop the violence and called on all parties involved to embrace dialogue as a way out of the current situation”.

The refusal of Odinga and Kibaki to negotiate directly has frustrated both Kenyans and Western powers.

In his meeting with Frazer, Odinga reiterated the opposition’s demands that a transitional government be formed to prepare for a new presidential vote within three to six months.

Kibaki was sworn in at his residence on Sunday just an hour after the results were announced. Opposition anger exploded around the country in demonstrations and tribal killings that mostly only subsided on Friday.

The United Nations said the violence had uprooted 250,000 people — far more than previously feared.

U.N. officials were scrambling to get food to people facing starvation after fleeing violence in the west, which included the burning to death of 30 people barricaded in a church.

Twenty trucks were due to leave Mombasa on Sunday carrying nearly 700 tonnes of U.N. World Food Programme aid.

Nine of the trucks were due to offload in the capital Nairobi, while the rest will continue to the violence-hit areas around the western town of Eldoret in Rift Valley Province.

The crisis in Kenya, a regional business and transport hub, has already hurt neighbouring countries. Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are all suffering fuel shortages. It has also dented Kenya’s image as a stable anchor in a volatile region.

Ghana’s President and African Union chairman John Kufuor had planned to visit for talks, but shelved the idea after Kenya’s government rejected the idea. On Saturday, Kibaki’s deputy foreign minister Moses Wetangula arrived in Ghana for talks.

(Reuters)