African Union chief John Kufuor met Kenyan leaders on Wednesday to try to break a political deadlock following disputed presidential polls that sparked widespread violence and left at least 600 dead.
President Mwai Kibaki, whose re-election 11 days ago triggered the unrest, denied there was any national crisis in his meeting with Kufuor, an official at the president’s office said.
“Kibaki insisted that the country is not in a crisis and the government is operational,” the official said.
Ghanaian president Kufuor faces the tough task of trying to bring together Kibaki and opposition chief Raila Odinga, who claims he was robbed of victory in the December 27 election.
Odinga refuses to recognise Kibaki’s legitimacy, alleging widespread fraud in the polls, including a rigged vote count.
Kufuor’s mission was made that much harder after a defiant Kibaki on Tuesday unveiled a partial Cabinet of 17 ministers, which Odinga rejected and opposition supporters greeted with violent protests.
The “partially formed government would continue to reach out to Kenyan leaders who would also be encouraged to play their role in preaching peace among their followers”, Kibaki’s office said in a statement after he briefly met with Kufuor early on Wednesday.
Odinga later met with the AU chief in Nairobi.
“We have not changed our position on recognising the president. We do not recognise him,” opposition party secretary general Anyang Nyongo said earlier.
Kufuor was also scheduled to hold talks with the top United States Africa envoy, Jendayi Frazer, who has been in Kenya for five days on a similar mediation mission.
Kibaki on Wednesday met displaced people around the western town of Eldoret, one of the worst-hit areas in the violence that followed his re-election.
Kibaki and Odinga have disputed various proposals that might allow them to talk for the first time since the poll-related clashes erupted, leaving 600 dead and 250 000 displaced.
The president had extended an invitation to his rival for face-to-face talks on Friday, but Odinga rejected the offer, saying he would only meet with Kufuor’s mediation.
Protests
Kibaki’s Cabinet announcement, which came just before Kufuor flew in on Tuesday, set off protests in the western city and opposition stronghold of Kisumu, where police said officers fired into the air to disperse up to 300 young demonstrators who had blocked a road with bonfires.
Hundreds of people also fled a Kisumu slum after the announcement sparked fears of further violence, a local police commander said.
“But we have deployed enough security to ensure the city is okay,” he said, requesting anonymity.
Kibaki’s line-up handed most posts to members of his party, although Kalonzo Musyoka, a minor presidential candidate, was named as vice-president, and another member of Kalonzo’s party was named information minister.
Foreign diplomats warned that the president’s move to name part of the Cabinet was a blow to peace negotiations, and an alliance of leading Kenyan rights groups accused Kibaki of riding roughshod over the political process.
“We refuse to allow the man sworn in as president to continue presenting the nation with what is, in effect, a series of ‘faits accomplis’,” Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice said in a statement on Wednesday.
There was no slot for any member of Odinga’s party, but Kibaki vowed in a statement on Wednesday to form a “broad-based” government.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday asked Frazer to prolong her mission in Kenya, while four former African presidents are also in the country to push diplomatic efforts.
The US is a key Kenyan ally and donor and President George Bush has urged the government and opposition to hold “good-faith” talks and end the violence.
Aid groups have warned of a potential health emergency in makeshift camps being used by the displaced in schools, hospitals and churches in the isolated and still tense Rift Valley region of western Kenya, as well as Nairobi’s slums.
The World Food Programme said it had been able to deliver food aid to thousands of people in the western region, but its convoys still require police escorts on some stretches due to security concerns. — AFP