Tom Mosoba
19 April 2008
Nairobi — Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Friday held talks with top officials of Zimbabwe's leading opposition party who sought Kenya's intervention in their country's election crisis.
Addressing reporters soon after their meeting, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary-general Tendai Biti said Mr Odinga had undertaken to table the Zimbabwe issue for debate by the Kenyan Cabinet "as a matter of urgency".
"The Prime Minister has assured us that the Kenyan government would be liaising with the African Union on how to approach the Zimbabwe election crisis resulting from failure by authorities to announce presidential election results," said Mr Biti.
Even though Mr Odinga did not join the team during the press briefing, he had earlier, during his dinner party soon after he was sworn in on Thursday, called on president Robert Mugabe to emulate President Kibaki with whom he (Raila) has formed a coalition government.
The MDC delegation said it was treating Kenya's intervention as a special reference, following what the country had gone through since the outbreak of post-election violence.
Meanwhile, Africa's umbrella body for trade unions has petitioned the AU to call for an urgent meeting to respond to the Zimbabwe crisis.
In a press statement, Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, the general-secretary of African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-AFRICA) expressed concern over the slow response African governments had shown towards the crisis.
"We call on the leadership of SADC and the African Union to stand up and be counted in this moment of truth for the people of Zimbabwe," he said, adding that the situation in Zimbabwe called for pressure to uphold democracy.
Mr Adu-Amankwah said for peace and stability to prevail, Zimbabwean election authorities should be compelled to announce the presidential elections results.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
