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/ 16 April 2008

More deaths in fresh Kenya gang violence

Four more people died during a second day of nationwide rioting in Kenya on Tuesday, bringing the overall toll to 19, in a crisis that presented the new coalition Cabinet with its first major challenge. Police said they had killed three members of the Mungiki gang and accused its members of having hacked a Nairobi watchman to death.

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/ 14 April 2008

Gang protests dampen Kenya’s joy over Cabinet

Kenya’s most feared criminal gang paralysed transport on Monday, posing an early challenge to a power-sharing Cabinet formed to end post-election deadlock. Up to seven people were killed when the Mungiki gang shut down roads in the capital, Nairobi, and the Rift Valley town of Naivasha in a gesture of anger after the beheading of its leader’s wife.

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/ 14 April 2008

Kenyan leader unveils power-sharing Cabinet

Kenya’s president unveiled a power-sharing government on Sunday, with opposition leader Raila Odinga as Prime Minister, aimed at ending a long-running political crisis sparked by contested elections. ”Let us put politics aside and get to work,” President Mwai Kibaki said in a televised speech announcing the Cabinet line-up.

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/ 12 April 2008

Kenya’s Kibaki, Odinga reach Cabinet deal

Kenya President Mwai Kibaki and would-be prime minister Raila Odinga on Saturday reached a coalition government agreement and a new Cabinet will be announced on Sunday, political and diplomatic sources said. The agreement was struck after Kibaki and Odinga held closed-door talks in Sagana State Lodge in central Kenya.

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/ 11 April 2008

Kenya Nobel laureate shuns Olympic torch relay

Kenyan Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai said on Friday she has pulled out of the Olympic torch relay this weekend in Tanzania to protest human rights abuses. The torch has been met by major demonstrations on its relay around the world to the Beijing Games, with thousands of protesters angry at China’s human rights record.

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/ 10 April 2008

Kenyan leaders urged to end stalemate

Pressure mounted on Thursday on Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and prime minister-designate Raila Odinga to resume coalition talks amid warnings that a delay was fomenting violence. The pair met last on Sunday and failed to agree on a unity government, a key step in implementing a power-sharing deal.

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/ 10 April 2008

Kenya coalition crumbles

The quest for a permanent political settlement in Kenya ran into trouble again this week with the opposition Orange Democratic Movement announcing that it is pulling out of talks on the formation of a coalition government. Talks on the composition of a coalition cabinet have been dragging on for a month.

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/ 9 April 2008

Kenyan leaders under pressure to resume talks

Kenyan leaders were on Wednesday under pressure to resume talks on forming a coalition government in a bid to end a devastating political crisis, a day after hundreds demonstrated to demand a new Cabinet. The much-delayed unveiling of a national-unity government is a key step in implementing a power-sharing deal aimed at quelling deadly violence.

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/ 6 April 2008

Kenya rivals expect Cabinet deal on Monday

Kenya’s president and future prime minister said on Sunday they had made ”substantial progress” at talks to end an impasse over a power-sharing Cabinet and expected to clinch a deal on Monday. The two sides had planned to name the Cabinet on Sunday, but disagreement over the division of ministries scuttled that plan.

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/ 6 April 2008

Govt says Kenya Cabinet naming to go ahead

Kenya’s president and opposition leader met to break an impasse over the naming of a power-sharing Cabinet and the government said the ministerial line-up would be unveiled later on Sunday. The Cabinet is a critical part of a deal brokered in February to end the East African nation’s bloodiest political crisis.

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/ 6 April 2008

Kenya delays new Cabinet announcement

The announcement of Kenya’s new coalition Cabinet has been delayed indefinitely over disagreements on its composition, both sides said on Saturday. "The widely expected announcement tomorrow [Sunday] of a new Cabinet that all Kenyans were so keenly awaiting has been delayed," Orange Democratic Movement spokesperson Salim Lone said.

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/ 4 April 2008

Kenyans say jumbo Cabinet a colossal waste

Kenyan papers and political watchdogs on Friday criticised the size of a coalition Cabinet announced a day earlier, saying 40 ministers were a colossal waste of money in a country with widespread misery. Newspapers said the cost was unreasonable for Kenya, a nation where about 60% of the population lives on less than a day.

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/ 4 April 2008

Kenyan impasse fuels anxiety

A widening rift around the size and structure of a coalition government in which powers and responsibilities will be shared between President Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity and Prime Minister designate Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement may be edging the country close to a renewed outbreak of political violence.

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/ 2 April 2008

Kenya’s political deadlock deepens

Kenya’s opposition on Wednesday accused the government of trying to spoil a power-sharing deal by seeking to vet new Cabinet ministers. President Mwai Kibaki and opposition chief Raila Odinga are at odds over the shape and size of a coalition Cabinet created under a pact to solve a post-election crisis that degenerated into ethnic violence.

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/ 2 April 2008

Somali Islamist leader commits to new peace plan

Somalia’s top exiled Islamist leader on Wednesday pledged his camp’s commitment to a new peace drive but warned the movement would keep up its struggle against what it calls Ethiopian occupation. "Members of the international community are trying to help Somalis overcome their differences and we will do all we can," Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said.

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/ 2 April 2008

Kenyan police fire tear gas at protesters

Kenyan police on Tuesday fired tear gas at demonstrators protesting against the proposed size of a coalition government, as pressure mounted on the president and prime minister-designate to name a Cabinet. President Mwai Kibaki and future prime minister Raila Odinga signed a power-sharing deal last month but have been wrangling over who will get key ministries.

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/ 28 March 2008

Kenya power-sharing hits deadlock over Cabinet

Kenya’s political rivals traded accusations on Thursday over who is to blame for the deadlock in plans to create a unity government and end the country’s post-election crisis. The share flotation of top cellphone operator Safaricom — the largest IPO ever in East Africa — has also become an issue in the wrangling, officials and analysts say.

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/ 28 March 2008

Fraud probe delayed

The independent review committee constituted to investigate alleged fraud during Kenya’s December presidential polls has had to delay its investigations until Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and prime minister designate Raila Odinga agree on the composition of a coalition government.

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/ 26 March 2008

Somalia too dangerous for aid work, say agencies

Top international aid agencies warned on Wednesday that war-scarred Somalia has become too dangerous for its workers to help more than one million civilians living rough, as fresh fighting erupted. Four Somali soldiers and two civilians were killed when Islamist fighters raided the town of Jowhar, near Mogadishu, officials said.

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/ 25 March 2008

Despite Kenya peace deal, ethnic tensions simmer

Nearly three months after the worst massacre of Kenya’s post-election violence, children’s shoes and charred clothes remain in the ashes of a rural church where about 30 people were burned to death. Wreaths of dried-out flowers lie where a mob set fire to the Assemblies of God building with 100 or so terrified villagers cowering inside.

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/ 20 March 2008

Deaths mount in Kenya over cattle theft

Seventeen people were killed in Kenya’s Rift Valley region over the past 36 hours, where cattle theft has fanned tribal animosity, bringing the toll to 25 in three days, police said on Thursday. Cattle raiders killed 12 villagers and police retaliated, killing five of the attackers in the Baringo district.