Nairobi — These remarks are addressed to President Mwai Kibaki and his rival, Mr Raila Odinga.

Kenya is severely damaged due to disputes over the outcome of last Thursday's presidential election. Both your sides are alleging rigging and have taken extreme positions: One has been sworn in as President, the other has rejected the outcome. Never, since 1982, has there been so much fear and uncertainty in the country.

Never has there been so much animosity between people who have lived together as good neighbours for many years. And the rights of Kenyans are slowly being squeezed, movement restricted, and some broadcast rights suspended. Kenyans are dying, their property is being looted, livelihoods are being destroyed.

There is absolutely no doubt in the minds of Kenyans that this is the fault of your political parties. The chaos we are now experiencing is the handiwork of the tribal, economic and political elite, which identify with you.

The simmering power struggle between your two camps, which has been waged since 2002, has brought Kenya to the verge of a complete melt-down. Kenya, a nation of peace and civility, is now being regarded by the international community as a "trouble spot" and spoken of in the same breath as Pakistan and other countries in turmoil.

Kenya is now causing untold suffering to its neighbours, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which rely on its industry and infrastructure for supplies. The complete economic shutdown is costing billions of shillings in lost production every day.

Kenyans can see through the high-sounding proclamations from both your sides: This has nothing to do with Kenya, it has nothing to do with democracy, it has to do with power and pork.

Your parties whipped up sentiments in the campaigns to create tribal voting blocs. They fanned fears and enthusiasms, either through irresponsible promises or by driving the people deeper into tribal silos.

They systematically destroyed the credibility of the election well before the vote by trading allegations of rigging on the flimsiest excuse. Your parties got out people to vote in larger numbers than ever before, and then, in all likelihood, did funny things with their votes.

Neither Party of National Unity nor the Orange Democratic Movement during the campaigns demonstrated any particular restraint or regard for the country's stability. The mantra appears to have been: We either rule it or burn it.

How many more must die, how much more must be destroyed before you come to your senses? Your actions have dug the country into a hole; now you must dig it out - quickly. These are the steps you must take to begin to undo the damage.

First, the winner-take-all political tradition is not going to get us out of this mess. As leaders, you cannot nurse your pride and personal feelings to the exclusion of the very survival of the nation. You must reach out to each and negotiate an accommodation that you both can live with. You must begin to send signals to your supporters, whose passions are inflamed, that you care enough for them to talk to each other.

Resolve power struggle

You must obey the law. Any decisions or actions outside of the law - including limitations on the freedoms of Kenyans - will surely be the last blow that will finish off Kenya as a stable nation. The last threads of sanity that Kenyans are hanging on to are our laws and institutions. The integrity of these must not be violated. Resolve your power struggle within the Constitution and the laws of the land.

Parliament must be constituted as soon as possible and the Judiciary afforded the earliest opportunity to arbitrate the many disputes which have come out of this election. Neither of you should take the law into your own hands, for to do so would be to declare a state of complete anarchy and to irreparably upset the democratic compass of the nation.

The earnest cry of all Kenyans is: Step back from the brink; the continuation of this dispute will be too costly, in lives and shillings.

Third, it is now quite clear that many Kenyans have lost faith in the Electoral Commission, the electoral process and procedures. A lot of urgent work needs to be done to restore the people's confidence not just in the commission but also in the electoral process.

This can not be done by one party in isolation. The reforms should make it impossible to stuff ballot boxes in any polling station and protect the integrity of the counting and tallying of the results.

There is no short-cut out of our predicament. The laws need to be evaluated and provisions such as the one allowing the President to appoint ECK commissioners without consultation removed.

Finally, you must make concerted and public efforts to calm the situation and restore normalcy. Right now, the most important thing is not the justice or injustice of your actions. The important thing is to restore peace, stability and confidence and therefore create an environment where wrongs can be righted.