Kenya is determined to make a success of a power-sharing deal designed to end a bloody two-month political crisis that has claimed 1 500 lives, Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said on Friday.
”We intend to make a big success of it, and even where we quarrel among ourselves, those quarrels hopefully will not attract that kind of international attention that our country attracted since December 27,” Wetangula said, referring to the date of Kenya’s disputed elections.
”Kenyans have collectively said ‘never again shall we descend and degenerate to the level where we went’,” he said, speaking after talks with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Kenya plunged into its worst post-independence crisis after opposition leader Raila Odinga accused President Mwai Kibaki of rigging the December elections.
The two rivals signed a power-sharing deal on February 28 and Parliament convened this week to begin to enact the landmark pact.
But more people died this week in tribal violence linked to the political turmoil and observers have warned that implementation of the deal could prove fraught.
Wetangula was part of a Kenyan delegation that attended the ITB tourism fair in Berlin in an effort to convince the industry that the East African nation is on its way back to political stability.
Several European countries warned their citizens against non-essential travel to Kenya during the crisis, while foreign travel insurance companies pulled coverage from the area in a heavy blow to a key industry. — AFP
