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Nigeria: Kenya - Odinga in Lagos, Gives Conditions for Peace
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This Day (Lagos)
23 February 2008
Posted to the web 25 February 2008
Chinedu Eze
Lagos
Kenya opposition leader, Raila Odinga yesterday said he was ready for a power sharing arrangement in the government of President Mwai Kibaki.
Addressing journalists yesterday at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, enroute former President Olusegun Obasanjo's farm in Ota, Ogun state, Odinga said: "there are clear cut constitutional provisions that must be made to suit this new power sharing."
Alleged rigging of the elections by Kibaki sparked off political crises that has led to the death of more than 1000 lives in Kenya.
But addressing journalists yesterday, Odinga said that the position of the prime minister is the least he can accept, noting that anything else would be unacceptable.
"You see what has happened is that we were robbed of victory. The whole world knows that we won the election; but now we are being asked to negotiate. What I am trying to say is that if somebody comes and steals your cow and you followed the cow, and you find him with the cow, in my tradition, you ask him to return the cow to you. B ut here we are being asked to negotiate with the "thief".
Odinga said that for the interest of Kenya, the opposition is willing to make some compromises. "We are ready for a power sharing deal, which will recognise equality. In other words, we are prepared to go into grand coalition in order to bring comprehensive reform before a re-run of the presidential election is done between one and two years' time."
He noted that peace is optional to those in authority, stressing that the crisis is resolvable through negotiations.
"we are in the process of that through the African union,and the former secretary general of the united nations,mr Kofi Annan .
He added, "In the intrest of Kenya ,we are ready to make compromise,we are ready to make some compromise not principle compromise,we are ready for power sharing which would be recorgnised equality,at least we are prepaid to to shift ground to have a ground coalition."
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The opposition leader acknowledged that since the crises started in early January Kenyan economy has been adversely affected, noting, "Toursim (which is the pivot of the nation's economy) of course is down. It has affected manufacturing because a number of business could not access raw materials; it has affected other sectors of the economy because a number of people who had occupied the most productive part of the country have been displaced. We have over half a million people who have been displaced, and people in the urban areas have also been diplaced as a reality of what you can call ethnic cleansing; so the Kenyan economy has been badly affected by the crises."
Odinga who arrived in a charter aircraft at 10.30am on his way to Ota to see the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo , said the breakdown of law and order in this country would have been avoidable, observing that a power sharing situation, similar to those of Germany , which brought Angela Maekel to power may be acceptable.
Odinga is the leader of Orange Democratic Movement(ODM) and have been locked in a struggle to revive his presidency as he believes that he convingly won the election last December.
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