They were the pride of Kenya, but the country’s athletics community could not escape the worst of the post-election tribal violence after disputed December polls. While two runners perished in the Rift Valley crucible of hate, there have also been allegations that stars past and present helped fund the New Year spree of inter-ethnic killings.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Kenya’s feuding political factions on Thursday announced the deadlock over a coalition government had been broken and that the new line-up would be announced on Sunday. The breakthrough came after a meeting between President Mwai Kibaki and prime minister-designate Raila Odinga amid weeks of bitter wrangling.
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.
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.
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.
Hopes faded on Sunday for 65 miners feared drowned in Tanzania after floods swept through a remote gemstone mine near Mount Kilimanjaro. Manyara regional commissioner Henry Shekifu said six bodies had been recovered and that 59 workers were missing after the disaster near the northern town of Mererani.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Church leader Wycliffe Masibo describes seeing an elderly member of his flock whipped to death during a Kenyan army search for militiamen in his remote mountain village. Having made all the men lie on the floor, soldiers kicked and hit them, demanding they tell them where guns were kept.
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.
Kenyans on Wednesday hailed the passing of laws needed for a power-sharing deal to end a deadly post-election crisis but worried about bitter debates ahead as discussion turned to sharing out posts. The rare conciliatory mood among the country’s lawmakers elated many Kenyans. But there were few illusions about the difficult days ahead.
Kenya’s Parliament on Tuesday unanimously passed the first of two laws required to enact a power-sharing deal designed to end the country’s bloody post-election crisis. In a 200-0 vote, the legislature approved the constitutional amendment making positions in the Cabinet for a prime minister and two deputies.
World leaders had to accept some blame for the violence that rocked Kenya after a disputed December election, killing more than 1 000 people, the international Human Rights Watch group said on Monday. It accused police of causing ”hundreds” of deaths by using excessive force during the two-month crisis.
Three lions have been speared to death close to Kenya’s Amboseli national park, a senior Kenya Wildlife Service official said on Friday, raising concerns about the country’s dwindling population of big cats. Five suspects have been arrested over the killings, which occurred over a one month period, said Patrick Omondi.
Hundreds of Kenyans have fallen ill after a chemical consignment was dumped on the roadside near the port city of Mombasa, officials said on Thursday. According to a local official, up to 1 500 people have sought treatment at local hospitals, complaining mainly of chest pains and respiratory problems.
Kenya’s new Parliament sought on Tuesday to speed up legislation ratifying a fragile power-sharing deal intended to guarantee the peace after a post-election crisis that killed more than 1 000 people. Members of Parliament proposed procedures so that two Bills could be approved within a five-day limit.
Kenya’s fragile power-sharing deal to end a bloody post-election crisis suffered a setback on Monday as a row broke out over the role of prime minister in the proposed coalition government. President Mwai Kibaki and his rival, Raila Odinga, signed the pact last month to end political turmoil that left hundreds of people dead.
The Kenyan army has launched a massive crackdown on a tribal militia in western Kenya that has killed hundreds of people in recent months, officials said on Monday. Police estimate that the militia has killed at least 500 people in the past year alone and displaced thousands of others. Last week, the group attacked a village in the area and killed 15 people.
President Mwai Kibaki commemorated on Thursday the 1Â 000 people killed during Kenya’s post-election crisis and urged Parliament to enshrine into law a power-sharing deal intended to keep the peace. Kibaki opened Kenya’s 10th Parliament with a minute’s silence first for two slain legislators then for all the victims of violence.
Villagers in Barack Obama’s ancestral Kenyan home expressed disappointment on Wednesday as his rival, Hillary Clinton, won key votes to revive her campaign for the White House. Victories for Clinton in Ohio and Texas snapped Obama’s winning streak and kept alive the New York senator’s campaign to win the Democratic Party nomination.
Kenyan rivals were on Tuesday to push ahead with talks on a new deal to share power and tackle root causes of the strife, a day after more than a dozen people were killed in the volatile Rift Valley. The negotiations are focusing on reforms to address historical injustices that entail electoral, institutional, constitutional and judicial issues.
Fresh attacks claimed at least 15 lives in Kenya’s Rift Valley region overnight, police said on Monday, while rival political leaders worked out details for reform under last week’s power-sharing accord. ”A total of 15 people died: six burned in their houses, six hacked with machetes and three shot dead,” a police commander said after the attack.
Mediator Kofi Annan said on Saturday he was giving up day-to-day responsibility for reconciliation talks in Kenya after securing a deal to end its worst crisis since independence. President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga signed a coalition government pact on Thursday intended to bring to a close two months of violence.
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/ 29 February 2008
Kenyans moved to put one of their country’s darkest chapters behind them on Friday after the president and opposition leader agreed to power-sharing aimed at ending a bloody post-election political crisis. President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga signed the deal setting up a coalition government on Thursday.
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/ 28 February 2008
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga signed a power-sharing agreement on Thursday intended to end a post-election crisis that left 1 000 people dead. Crowds of onlookers clapped as the two rivals inked a deal at a televised ceremony to set up a coalition government.