South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu was in Nairobi on Thursday to try to mediate between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga over their election dispute, party officials said.
An official from Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement party said Tutu, who arrived on Wednesday, was expected to try and persuade Odinga to sit down with Kibaki and seek a joint resolution to the crisis.
Odinga has accused Kibaki of rigging the December 27 presidential election. The president’s re-election victory sparked a wave of protests, riots and tribal killings, which have left more than 340 people dead.
The Kenyan government has insisted there is no need for outside mediation.
“For us, [Tutu] came here as a tourist … because we did not invite him to talk to us,” a top government official said. — AFP