Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai on Tuesday urged Kenya’s bickering political leaders to show restraint in a crisis of authority that has raised fears of unrest in East Africa’s most stable nation.
Hoping to trade on respect earned when she won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, Maathai urged Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition to cool tensions that erupted after last week’s rejection of a new Constitution.
”Leaders must now remove the barrier which divided Kenyans and now threatens justice and security,” she told reporters at a news conference in Nairobi. ”Now is the time for leaders to come together and dialogue to seek consensus.”
”It is time for restraint,” Maathai said, decrying a rise in belligerent rhetoric between the two camps since Kenya’s people voted down the draft charter that Kibaki supported in a November 21 referendum.
Foes of the Constitution — gathered into an Orange Democratic Movement for the fruit that was the ballot symbol for ”no” — say the rejection was a no-confidence vote in Kibaki and have demanded snap parliamentary elections.
The president, who led the so-called Banana campaign for ”yes”, has sacked his entire Cabinet, pledging a new line-up by next week. He also suspended Tuesday’s planned reopening of Parliament but has refused to call new polls.
On Sunday, the government banned all opposition demonstrations calling for fresh elections, prompting vows by the Orange leadership to defy the order and sparking concerns that the impasse may turn violent.
”The ongoing exchanges, threats, demands and war of words between the Orange and Banana camps are not conducive for reconciliation and national healing, which we all need at this trying time,” Maathai said.
Government split
The referendum had deeply split Kibaki’s government with seven dissident Cabinet ministers urging its defeat as it retained near absolute powers in the Presidency and did not meet popular demands for an empowered premier.
Maathai, who served as deputy environment minister in Kibaki’s former Cabinet, had called for the referendum to be postponed following a violence-marred campaign in which at least eight people were killed.
In the wake of the vote, she called on the two sides, particularly the victors, to accept the decision of the voters honourably — nearly 60 percent of whom rejected the proposed constitution.
”For the Orange team, humility and restraint in victory is not easy, but that is what the country needs,” Maathai said.
But the Orange leadership has thus far been unrelenting in pressing its demands on the embattled Kibaki, who is facing criticism for failing to follow through on pledges he made when he swept to power in 2002 on a reform platform.
Former roads minister Raila Odinga and opposition chief Uhuru Kenyatta have been particularly vocal in attacking the president, who on Monday met his still-influential authoritarian predecessor Daniel arap Moi to seek advice.
The rising tensions have alarmed Nairobi-based diplomats and analysts who fear Kenya’s long-standing status as an island of relative stability in a volatile region may be jeopardised by a protracted dispute.
”Things could get very ugly, very fast if this keeps up,” one senior Western diplomat said. ”We’re hoping that cooler heads prevail.”
Retired University of Nairobi international relations professor Washington Okumu, who mediated a 1994 truce between South Africa’s African National Congress and its rival Inkatha Freedom Party, warned of chaos without dialogue.
All sides ”should forgive each other and work toward healing the nation to avoid a crisis of the type we have seen in Rwanda, Somalia, Côte d’Ivoire or Sierra Leone”, he said. — Sapa-AFP