Dave Opiyo
25 April 2008
Nairobi — For the second time in a week, talks aimed at looking into short- and long-term causes of last year's election violence failed to take place.
The mediated talks have suffered many interruptions since the power-sharing agreement was signed. On Thursday, it emerged that some members of the National Dialogue and Reconciliation team had accompanied President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga on the peace tour of the Rift Valley.
The talks had been adjourned on Tuesday to allow the negotiators - all Cabinet ministers - to attend a meeting with Rift Valley MPs to prepare for resettlement of poll violence victims currently living in camps. The Head of State chaired the meeting.
Talks' spokesman Jens Laerke said the meeting had been postponed indefinitely. "By Thursday morning, we had no confirmation from the parties involved that they would attend the meeting," he said. PNU is represented by ministers Martha Karua, Sam Ongeri, Moses Wetang'ula and Mutula Kilonzo, while ODM has William Ruto, Musalia Mudavadi, Sally Kosgei and James Orengo.
Several reasons have been given for the suspension of the talks, raising fears that the negotiators might have lost focus on cracking Agenda Four.
The talks were first suspended in February by chief mediator Kofi Annan when the teams failed to agree on a power-sharing deal. He decided to engage the President and Prime Minister directly in an effort to end the stalemate.
Deadlock
Other reasons posed for suspending talks include the negotiators breaking off for Easter, and the deadlock over naming of the Cabinet.
The talks were also suspended when the co-chair, the Nigerian diplomat Prof Oluyemi Adeniji, travelled to Ethiopia to brief the African Union on the progress of the talks. Before the talks were adjourned this week, the negotiators were expected to unveil the names of the two international experts, who will assist Court Of Appeal judge Philip Waki to run the mini-commission on post-election violence.
They were also expected to discuss the draft agreement to seal loopholes that may threaten the unity of the grand coalition Government.
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