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Kenya: Reality Check As Annan Jets in
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The East African Standard (Nairobi)
ANALYSIS
23 January 2008
Posted to the web 22 January 2008
Nairobi
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and bitter rival Party of National Unity (PNU) will on Wednesday be presented with another important chance to take steps that could help return the country to sanity.
Expectations that former UN chief, Mr Kofi Annan, who jetted into the country on Tuesday night, will bring together the two warring groups and chart a path out of a crippling post-election impasse - which has touched off an economic meltdown and threatens a complete social breakdown - were quite high last night.
But the bloodletting continued unabated.
The country also remained in the cross-hairs of the donor community. The World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) were the latest to join in the fray with a chilling proclamation.
"The current situation could drive two million Kenyans into poverty, reversing the gains made over the last few years," the two institutions said in a joint statement. "Business confidence is being undermined."
The statement added: "We wish to continue working with the people of Kenya ... but it is difficult to do so effectively in an environment of instability".
It further said that both the WB and AfDB will, accordingly, continue to monitor developments closely and keep programmes under review, while making necessary adjustments as the situation evolved.
But this did not dim the optimism.
The crisis has been occasioned by a stand-off between PNU and ODM over the outcome of the presidential vote. Orange party leader, Mr Raila Odinga, says he won the election and it was stolen from him. But PNU maintains President Kibaki, who was quickly sworn-in after the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) chairman Mr Samuel Kivuitu controversially declared the results, won fair and square.
"The ultimate objective is to have a solution that would bring peace and reconciliation," Anglican Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said ahead of the talks.
Former South African First Lady Mrs Graca Machel and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni - the only foreign leader to congratulate President Kibaki over his disputed re-election - arrived on Tuesday afternoon.
President Kibaki, Vice-President Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, Foreign minister Mr Moses Wetangula and his Internal Security counterpart, Prof George Saitoti, were at hand to receive the dignitaries
ODM mass protest
Machel, who gave her husband Nelson Mandela's message of hope to Kenyans, said: "When I left home, he wished me all the best in the negotiation. He wishes all the best for Kenya and Africa as a whole".
She added: "I'm positive the crisis will be sorted out amicably and an end will be brought to the violence in which over 600 lives have been lost".
On Tuesday, ODM emerged from a day-long consultation session to announce it would pick its negotiation team once Annan establishes the rules of engagement.
Annan will head the team comprising former Tanzanian President Mr Benjamin Mkapa and Graca. The team will be working with the former African Presidents Mr Joachim Chissano (Mozambique), Sir Ketumile Masire (Botswana) and Mr Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia).
Prof Anyang' Nyong'o, ODM secretary-general, also said they would put their case to Ugandan leader Museveni as the chairman of the East African Community (EAC).
But the Orange party ruled out calling off mass protests.
"We don't want to pretend that things look good here by calling off mass protests simply because mediators are around. It's our right to enjoy peaceful assembly. So the mass protests will continue," Nyong'o said.
The Party of National Unity also assumed a new hardline position.
Kalonzo, who heads PNU's 10-member talks team, ruled out any negotiations with ODM, saying the talks constituted a forum to dialogue on ways to bring down political tension.
The party also dismissed the possibility of power-sharing, throwing a spanner in the works ahead of the talks.
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"Our friends on the other side are talking about forming a negotiating committee. There are no negotiations. This is dialogue in the spirit of Kenya," Kalonzo, who spoke after chairing a Parliamentary Group meeting of the coalition government and which was attended by more than 40 legislators at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), Nairobi, said.
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