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/ 16 January 2008
In 16 years of working at resorts along Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast, hotel manager Mohamed Hersi has never seen it this bad. His five-star hotel in Mombasa is devoid of tourists who would normally be crowding its large, ornate dining area and its sunny beaches during the current high season.
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/ 16 January 2008
A catchy ”song for peace” crackling over Kenyan radio is breaking pace with the litany of doom and gloom and bloody fallout from last month’s elections that dominates the air waves these days. WaKenya Pamoja (Kenya Together) carries a different message, and maybe a reason not to give up on a vote meant to uphold this nation as a beacon of democracy in a troubled region.
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/ 15 January 2008
Kenya’s new government and opposition clashed in Parliament for the first time on Tuesday in a bad-tempered session reflecting deep bitterness over the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki. Despite demands for urgent action to end a crisis in which hundreds have been killed, opposition and government legislators argued for an hour.
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/ 15 January 2008
The dispute over President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election in Kenya moved to Parliament on Tuesday as the government and opposition prepared to wrestle for control of the East African nation’s legislature. Roads were closed and riot police ringed the building in downtown Nairobi from early morning before the opening session of the new Parliament.
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/ 14 January 2008
The Kenyan government on Monday rejected a mediation mission by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan to try to end political unrest and sent a stern warning to the opposition ahead of nationwide protests. Two weeks after President Mwai Kibaki’s contested re-election sparked violence that has left hundreds dead, Annan was due in Nairobi.
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/ 14 January 2008
Kenya’s feuding parties prepared on Monday for fresh duels in parliament and on the streets despite another international push to mediate a post-election crisis that has now killed at least 612 people. But for many around the East African nation, the top priority was getting millions of children back to their studies.
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/ 12 January 2008
A row of empty pool-side benches stretches beside a lone tourist at a luxury lodge in Kenya after post-poll turmoil cut travel to one of the world’s most famous safari spots. ”We were really hoping our safari would not be cancelled,” says Canadian tourist Debbie Shillitto.
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/ 11 January 2008
Kenya’s opposition said on Friday it planned to restart protests across the East African nation against President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election after the failure of African Union mediation. Kibaki’s government has made clear it will not tolerate opposition marches. Previous protests have led to bloody clashes between opposition supporters and security forces.
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/ 11 January 2008
Kenya’s game parks usually teem with camera-toting tourists at this time of year. Now they are all but empty after images of deadly clashes that rocked the country were beamed around the world. Operators say pictures of machete-wielding youths battling riot police have sent some tourists packing and others delaying trips or scrapping planned visits outright.
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/ 10 January 2008
African Union chairperson John Kufuor quit Kenya on Thursday without a deal to end a political crisis that has killed hundreds of people, leaving the president and opposition leader accusing each other of wrecking talks. Controversy over President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election in a December 27 vote triggered bloodletting that displaced 250 000 people.
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/ 10 January 2008
Kenya’s carnivorous wildlife — big cats and scavenger mammals and birds — may have made off with and devoured the bodies of human victims of recent post-election violence. ”There are also an unspecified number of uncollected bodies due to accessibility difficulties, and it was feared the bodies may have been consumed by animals and birds of prey,” said the Kenya Red Cross Society.
President Mwai Kibaki’s appointment of a partial Cabinet sparked more violence in Kenya overnight as the African Union (AU) began talks on Wednesday to end post-election turmoil. After a lull in clashes sparked by Kibaki’s disputed re-election on December 27, he named 17 ministers late on Tuesday.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki announced part of his new Cabinet on Tuesday, including Amos Kimunya as Finance Minister, amid a political crisis that has cost nearly 500 lives. Meanwhile, opposition leader Raila Odinga has rejected bilateral talks with Kibaki, dimming hopes for a breakthrough to end the turmoil.
African Union chief John Kufuor was due in Nairobi on Tuesday on a crucial mission to broker talks between Kenya’s rival leaders and end the political turmoil that has claimed hundreds of lives. Ahead of Kufuor’s arrival, President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga jousted with various proposals that would allow the two men to sit down together.
Media rights watchdog Reporters sans Frontières on Tuesday condemned an attack on two Tanzanian journalists who were beaten and had acid thrown at them. The Paris-based rights group said assailants attacked Saeed Kubenea, publisher of Swahili weekly Mwanahalisi, and its editor, Ndimara Tegambwage.
Kenya’s opposition said on Tuesday it would only hold talks with President Mwai Kibaki as part of international mediation efforts to end post-election unrest. The head of the African Union, Ghanaian President John Kufuor, was due to arrive in Nairobi on Tuesday in a push for dialogue between Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga.
Up to 1Â 000 people may have died in more than a week of riots and post-election violence in Kenya, opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Monday. The head of the African Union, Ghanaian President John Kufuor, is due to land in Nairobi on Tuesday. Odinga said Kufuor could begin chairing talks on Wednesday.
In the remote west Kenyan village of Koiluget, a deadly attack by a rival ethnic group just over a week ago left behind more than just twisted sheet metal and charred walls — rotting corpses still litter the corn fields. Eight days after the Koiluget raid, wisps of smoke still smoulder from the houses.
Kenya opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Monday he had called off protests because a "mediation process" to resolve the political crisis that has killed nearly 500 people was about to begin. "We are now assured that the mediation process is about to start," Odinga told reporters after meeting United States envoy Jendayi Frazer.
Kenyans across the political divide prayed for peace on Sunday while aid workers sought to bring relief to nearly 200 000 refugees from post-election violence. ”Our leaders have failed us. They have brought this catastrophe upon us. So now we are turning to the Almighty to save Kenya,” said Jane Riungu, leading her five children to a hilltop church.
A devastating health emergency looms in Kenya where an explosion of post-election violence has killed hundreds and displaced a quarter of a million others, British charity Merlin warned on Sunday. Local aid workers fear an outbreak of diseases in crowded make-shift camps in schools, hospitals and churches, most of which were still out of reach.
Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki said on Saturday he was ready to form a government of national unity to end post-election violence that has killed hundreds of people and forced 250 000 to flee their homes. The development could be a breakthrough after a week-long stalemate between Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga.
United Nations agencies have expressed increasing concern for the plight of up to 250 000 Kenyans displaced by post-election violence, as international diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis continued. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that at least 100 000 people in the northern Rift Valley alone needed immediate help.
President Mwai Kibaki is open to the idea of a coalition government to end Kenya’s post-election crisis but only if the opposition meets his terms, South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu said on Friday. ”There is a great deal of hope,” said Tutu, trying to mediate to end turmoil that has killed more than 300 people and threatened one of Africa’s strongest economies.
Trade in Kenya’s foreign exchange and stock markets was slow and volumes thin on Friday, as fears of more post-election violence kept many dealers at home. ”There’s not much activity. Most players are out,” said Bank of Africa forex dealer Robert Gatobu. ”It’s a wait-and-see attitude with players waiting for the political climate to calm down.”
Huge numbers of Kenyan police deployed on Friday to block an opposition rally in Nairobi as Washington sent its top Africa diplomat to help resolve a post-election crisis that has claimed more then 350 lives. On Thursday, police had used water cannon and tear gas to disperse opposition supporters marching on the city centre for a "million-man" rally.
Supporters of Kenyan opposition chief Raila Odinga were on Friday set to defy a ban on a rally in the capital, Nairobi, as international pressure for an end to the political crisis mounted. The death toll from in post-election violence has already climbed past 350.
The Attorney General on Thursday called for an independent probe into Kenya’s election after a day of battles in Nairobi between police and demonstrators disputing the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki. The opposition called off a rally in a central park, saying it wanted to save lives, after a day of fighting during which police fired live rounds in the air.
Kenyan police fired tear gas and water cannon on Thursday at thousands of anti-government protesters chanting ”Peace” and singing the national anthem as they tried to march to a banned rally. Nairobi became a battleground as shots rang around, crowds ran to-and-fro, riot police thronged the streets and plumes of smoke rose.
South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu was in Nairobi on Thursday to try to mediate between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga over their election dispute, party officials said. An official from Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement party said Tutu was expected to try and persuade Odinga to sit down with Kibaki and seek a joint resolution.
Defeated Kenyan opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga was set Thursday to press his claims of vote fraud at a rally declaring him "the people’s president" despite threats of arrest, as the toll from post-election violence climbed above 340. The government has banned the Nairobi protest rally, one week after the election, over fears of further violence.
Diplomatic efforts accelerated on Wednesday to resolve the crisis in Kenya, where post-election violence has threatened to escalate into tribal war, with tens of thousands displaced and hundreds murdered. The dispute over last week’s presidential ballot has triggered Kenya’s worst urban unrest in 25 years.