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/ 15 February 2008
Kofi Annan, the mediator trying to end Kenya’s violent post-election crisis, prepared to reveal a deal on Friday struck between the feuding parties that looked set to shift the dispute towards a battle over the Constitution. Annan is trying to bring an immediate end the crisis, which plunged the country into one of its darkest moments since 1963 independence.
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/ 15 February 2008
Kenya’s ethnic bloodshed has scared away hundreds of thousands of tourists. Nairobi’s seedy nightclubs think they know just how to bring them back. Curvaceous Kenyan women in skimpy outfits slowly, and then rapidly, gyrate to Egyptian tunes during belly-dancing theme night at the Casablanca club.
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/ 14 February 2008
Chief mediator Kofi Annan on Wednesday put Kenya’s crisis talks back on course toward a deal after defusing a row over his plan for a ”grand coalition” government to end post-election turmoil. Annan had irked negotiators for President Mwai Kibaki when he told Parliament on Tuesday that a power-sharing government could be a way out of the crisis.
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/ 13 February 2008
Kenya is a land of stark contrast: the rich drive gleaming luxury cars and can afford to enrol their children in top British schools. But most live a hand-to-mouth existence and some Kenyans believe the bloody post-election crisis that has exposed the country’s tribal divisions could also inflame the gulf between classes and further exacerbate instability.
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/ 13 February 2008
The creation of a power-sharing government in Kenya appeared imminent on Tuesday after a parliamentary briefing in which former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan spoke of a possible "grand coalition" to end the country’s political crisis. He has also noted that a deal would hopefully be made by the weekend.
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/ 12 February 2008
The number of tourists arriving in Kenya last month was 90% less than anticipated, reports said, following weeks of violence and unrest that have marred the image of the nation known for its fabled game parks and pristine coastline. Only 8Â 000 tourists arrived to the country instead of the expected 100Â 000.
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/ 12 February 2008
Kofi Annan urged Kenya’s rival leaders on Monday to hold urgent talks to find an end within 72 hours to the political crisis and unrest that has left more than 1 000 people dead. Annan was appointed as mediator by the African Union to try to broker an agreement to end weeks of violence since a disputed December 27 presidential election.
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/ 11 February 2008
Negotiators for President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga re-started talks on Monday in a mood of national optimism that a political solution to Kenya’s worst crisis since independence may be near. Mediator and former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has predicted the two sides will agree on a formula this week to overcome their dispute.
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/ 10 February 2008
The chief mediator in Kenya’s crisis talks, Kofi Annan, urged Kenyans to be patient on Saturday with a deal to end weeks of violence expected to be finalised in the coming days. ”In negotiations, a deal is not a deal until it is done,” the former United Nations chief cautioned in a statement.
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/ 8 February 2008
Negotiators for Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Friday talks to resolve their dispute over Kibaki’s re-election had moved forward but not reached a final deal. ”I don’t think it’s really going to be a breakthrough, but rather an agreement of principles,” a senior government official said.
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/ 8 February 2008
Tanzanian newspapers welcomed on Friday the resignation of Prime Minister Edward Lowassa over a parliamentary probe into an emergency power generation contract. President Jakaya Kikwete accepted Lowassa’s resignation and dissolved his Cabinet late on Thursday.
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/ 8 February 2008
Kenya’s political rivals tried to inject some momentum on Friday into slow-moving peace talks brokered by former United Nations head Kofi Annan, aimed at ending weeks of bloodshed. Four people were killed overnight in tribal violence in the Kisii region of Nyanza province in western Kenya, two of whom were ”hacked to death”, police said.
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/ 8 February 2008
An East African peacemaking body on Friday called for an end to Kenya’s post-election violence and expressed support for mediation talks led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan. ”We urge all Kenyans to support the line of peace and dialogue and reconciliation and do away with the violence,” Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said.
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/ 7 February 2008
Information Minister Samuel Poghisio said on Thursday the violence in Kenya was diminishing and that most of the country was unaffected, so investors and tourists should not take fright. More than 1 000 people have been killed, mostly in ethnic clashes, after a disputed election on December 27.
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/ 6 February 2008
Kenya’s political rivals resumed crisis talks on Wednesday despite preparations for a meeting of East African foreign ministers which has angered opposition leaders. The opposition has threatened more street protests if the government chairs Thursday’s planned meeting of the regional body Igad.
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/ 5 February 2008
Kenya’s government and the opposition begin detailed negotiations on Tuesday to try to end political and tribal conflict that has killed about 1 000 people and brought one of Africa’s brightest economies to its knees. The two sides agreed on Monday on immediate steps to help the hundreds of thousands displaced by the violence.
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/ 4 February 2008
The Kenyan government on Monday lifted a ban on live broadcasts imposed over a month ago as violence erupted over the outcome of a hotly contested presidential election, the Information Ministry said. The government said the ban was in the ”interest of public safety and tranquillity” when it was announced on December 30.
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/ 4 February 2008
A Kenyan legislator on Monday accused President Mwai Kibaki’s wife, Lucy, of assaulting him at the official State House residence three weeks ago and said he planned to sue her. The government denied the charge. Government-allied legislator Gitobu Imanyara told reporters he had been the latest target of Lucy Kibaki’s ire.
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/ 4 February 2008
South African business tycoon Cyril Ramaphosa, chosen by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan to head long-term mediation efforts in Kenya, pulled out on Monday because of reservations expressed by the Kenyan government. ”Kofi Annan reluctantly accepts the withdrawal of Cyril Ramaphosa from the role of chief mediator,” a UN official said.
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/ 3 February 2008
Kenyan opposition chief Raila Odinga on Sunday called for the deployment of foreign peacekeepers to stem the country’s escalating violence, saying security forces were not impartial in crackdowns. Kenyan police have admitted to killing dozens of arsonists, looters and people who have attacked them during violent demonstrations.
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/ 2 February 2008
The death toll from ethnic fighting and a police crackdown in western Kenya rose to 44 on Saturday, a day after the feuding political sides agreed to a framework to try to end weeks of violence. Thirty-four people have died in fresh clashes, police said on Saturday, including in western Nyanza province.
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/ 2 February 2008
Kenya’s government and opposition struck an agreement on Friday to take immediate steps to try to end tribal bloodshed in a five-week-old political stand-off in which about 850 people have been killed. Meanwhile, 27 people have been killed in fresh violence in western Kenya, police said on Saturday.
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/ 1 February 2008
The aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Friday it was pulling all its international staff out of Somalia after three of its staff were killed by a roadside bomb. For the time being ”MSF has suspended all international staff presence”, the medical humanitarian organisation said in a statement released in Nairobi.
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/ 1 February 2008
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon flew into Kenya on Friday to provide heavyweight diplomatic clout for efforts to end a month of post-election turmoil in which more than 850 people have been killed. African leaders at a summit in neighbouring Ethiopia attended by the UN head have called for urgent action to stop the bloodletting
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/ 31 January 2008
Kenya’s police said the fatal shooting of a legislator by a policeman on Thursday was a ”crime of passion” and had already led to one arrest. But the head of the Orange Democratic Movement, Raila Odinga, called the death of David Kimutai Too in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret a politically-motivated ”execution”.
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/ 30 January 2008
Kenya on Wednesday pledged tougher action to rein in post-election violence that threatens to spiral out of control, in the East African nation’s darkest moment since independence in 1963. Protests over President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election in the December 27 vote have degenerated into cycles of killing between rival tribes.
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/ 30 January 2008
People in drought-affected regions of central and southern Somalia need urgent help after losing most of their livestock, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information, Ahmed Abdisalam, said on Wednesday. He said the worst-affected regions are Hiiraan, Galgadud, Mudug and parts of Bay and Bakol and Gedo.
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/ 30 January 2008
There is clear evidence of ”ethnic cleansing” in Kenya’s Rift Valley since a disputed election, but it does not amount to genocide, said the top United States diplomat for Africa. ”The cycle of retaliation has gone too far and has become more dangerous,” said US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer.
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/ 29 January 2008
Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan brought together Kenya’s political rivals on Tuesday in a push to mediate an end to the post-election crisis and stop spreading tribal bloodshed. About a dozen people were killed in the country on Tuesday, bringing the toll to more than 850.
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/ 29 January 2008
An international rights group on Monday urged Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, who is struggling to gain control over his nation, to ensure reporters rights are protected in the increasingly volatile Horn of Africa state. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urged the premier to ”end the ongoing pattern of countrywide arbitrary arrests”.
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/ 29 January 2008
Kenyan security forces struggled on Tuesday to contain escalating violence as the post-election unrest claimed its first victim among the country’s politicians. Heavily armed Kenyan army soldiers patrolled the volatile Rift Valley capital, Nakuru, on Tuesday while paramilitary police guarded the town of Naivasha, the new epicentre of tribal fighting.
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/ 28 January 2008
Protests erupted in western Kenya and machete-wielding mobs faced off in the Rift Valley on Monday after scores died in ethnic violence, complicating mediation efforts by former United Nations boss Kofi Annan. In the normally peaceful Rift Valley town of Nakuru, a mortuary worker said on Monday that 64 corpses were lying in the morgue.