Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Resettlement of Kenya’s Displaced Strains Families; Society
Resettlement of Kenya’s Displaced Strains Families; Society
By Scott Bobb
Kisumu, Western Kenya
27 February 2008
(VOA)
The violence following the disputed elections in Kenya killed more than one-thousand people and displaced an estimated 600,000 more. Many of the displaced have been taken in by their extended families but thousands continue to live in camps awaiting resettlement and some of them have nowhere to go. VOA’s Scott Bobb visited such a camp in Kisumu, western Kenya, and has this report.
On a hot afternoon inside a sprawling compound on the edge of Kisumu, children play under a large tent sheltering rows of cots covered by mosquito nets. Meanwhile, adults chat on plastic chairs under a nearby canopy.
More
Poor Leadership Behind Kenya Crisis, Museveni Says
The Monitor (Kampala)
By Zephania Ubwani
President Yoweri Museveni yesterday condemned the recent political violence in Kenya and attributed it to poor political leadership and ethnic divisions.
He called on the country’s leaders to find solutions to the crisis through constitutional and political reforms and at the same time agree to the mediation efforts led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
MoreAnnan embarks on final push for Kenya compromise
Annan embarks on final push for Kenya compromise
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
NAIROBI: Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, embarked on a final push to squeeze a compromise from Kenya’s feuding president and opposition leader Wednesday.
Annan, who has been mediating in the crisis, has set up direct meetings with the men to break a stalemate that has kept the East African country in limbo between a power-sharing government and ethnic violence.
Two months after the disputed Kenyan presidential vote, Annan suspended monthlong talks between the two political parties on Tuesday, saying he would personally appeal to their leaders to strike a deal because talks were “turning around in circles.”
The opposition, meanwhile, called off mass rallies that had been planned for Thursday. Past rallies have turned violent. The opposition leader, Raila Odinga, said the move was in response to a request from Annan.
MoreOdinga still optimistic about settlement
(Radio Netherlands)
Nairobi - Kenya’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) opposition party, has called off a mass demonstration planned for Thursday. ODM leader Raila Odinga has reaffirmed his conviction that it is possible for the political crisis in Kenya to be solved by negotiation. His comments followed talks with the former United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan.
Earlier this week, Mr Annan suspended his attempts at mediation between Mr Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki. Although he is still speaking with both politicians separately, Mr Annan says that it is up to them to find a solution.
Kenya remains at an impasse in the wake of its disputed presidential election on 27 December. The ensuing political conflict has led to ethnic violence in which between 1,000 and 1,500 people have been killed.
Many Kenyan refugees in Uganda too scared to return
MULANDA, Uganda, February 26 (UNHCR) – The security situation may have improved in areas of Kenya hit by post-election violence, but many of the thousands of refugees who fled to Uganda are still too scared to return.
An estimated 12,000 Kenyans crossed the border to escape inter-ethnic violence that flared in parts of Kenya after the December 27 elections. Most are living with locals in border areas, but around 1,980 have been moved to the UNHCR transit centre in Mulanda, some 35 kilometres inside Uganda.
While the influx of Kenyans has all but ended and there is some cross-border movement, many of the refugees – especially in Mulanda – say it is too dangerous to return. Some doubt they will ever go back to their former homes.
MoreNo peace, we die
KISUMU, 26 February 2008 (IRIN) - Roselyne Anyango, 32, is an HIV-positive single mother who moved to Naivasha five years ago to work on a flower farm. When violence broke out after December’s disputed elections, she and her two children, aged 13 and six, were forced to flee. Her elder child has special needs.
For safety, they were taken to Kisumu where most of the population is Luo like themselves but then they were told to move on to their “ancestral lands”. But Anyango knew she would be rejected in the village where she grew up because she had separated from her husband and is living with HIV/AIDS.
MoreODM Says It is Not to Blame for Stalled Talks
By David Ohito, Ben Agina And Ayub Savula
Nairobi
ODM emerged from the heated mediation meeting and said it was not to blame for the suspension of talks.
The party pointed fingers at their rivals in Government for changing positions and sabotaging talks in a ‘disturbing manner.’
More
A disciplined force not immune to ethnic tension
Xan Rice in Nairobi
The Guardian, Wednesday February 27 2008
Kenya’s military has an excellent reputation at home and abroad. Apart from a brief, failed coup attempt by air force officers against former president Daniel arap Moi in 1982, it has kept out of politics.
The army is regarded as professional and disciplined, having protected Kenya’s borders during the civil wars in Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Uganda. Staffed with volunteers, it has played a major role in peacekeeping missions on the continent, and in Bosnia and East Timor. “Though not brilliantly equipped, it is a well-trained, disciplined force,” said a European analyst in Nairobi.
Cooperation with the British army, which has training facilities in Kenya, is strong. There are also links with the US military, especially since al-Qaida bombed the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998.
During his 24-year tenure Moi made sure his Kalenjin ethnic group occupied many top army positions. This changed under Mwai Kibaki, who retired many of Moi’s generals and replaced them with members of his Kikuyu ethnic group.
The more than 20,000 rank and file troops are ethnically diverse, however. Analysts say that with the opposition having swept six of the country’s eight provinces in the presidential election, it is likely that the bulk of these soldiers would have voted for presidential challenger Raila Odinga rather than Kibaki.
This may be the main reason why Kibaki resisted sending in the army as the post-election violence spiralled. Even within the armed forces, there are those who believe that if troops are asked to quell further protests in opposition strongholds, the military could be split along ethnic lines - with disastrous consequences.
Amnesty Plans Protests for Action
The Nation (Nairobi)
By Kevin J. Kelley And Sam Kiplagat
Washington, DC
Street protests and Internet activism are being encouraged worldwide today as part of Amnesty International’s Day of Action for Kenya.
“Around the world,” says Ms Ann Corbett, Amnesty’s US-based Kenya specialist, “Amnesty groups will demonstrate solidarity with the people of Kenya and call on the Kenyan Government to protect people from politically motivated and ethnic violence.”
MoreMedia’s role in the Kenya election fallout
As Kenya’s tenth par liament met for the first time last week, the violence that rocked the country after the announce ment of Mwai Kibaki as the presi dential winner in the Dec. 2007 elections had largely died down. But the country is bracing for more violence and turmoil. As Kenyans and the international com munity try to come to terms with what happened, it would be useful to systemati cally think about the role played by the key institutions of democracy. In Kenya, the media, together with a robust civil society, has been a key force for democratisation. But as things unravelled after the elections, one could not help but wonder whether the Kenyan media could have done better, whether media could have helped forestall the fallout.
MoreTalks fail: Army is Kenya’s best hope
Britain on Tuesday said that the Kenyan army is now “by far the best option” to stop a sectarian bloodbath as peace talks in Nairobi between the government and opposition were suspended.
The Foreign Office Minister for Africa, Asia and the United Nations, Mark Malloch-Brown, said that there was a serious risk of renewed bloodshed if talks broke down irrevocably. About a thousand Kenyans have been killed since disputed elections in December and 600 000 have fled their homes after rival gangs, organised largely on ethnic lines, went on the rampage.
MoreRice Faults Leadership in Crisis
The Nation (Nairobi)
By Anthony Kariuki
US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has said the failure of leadership is responsible for the delayed solution to Kenya’s crisis.
She has also stated that there can be no excuse for further delay and warned that both sides’ relationship with her government hinges on their cooperation to reach a political compromise.
More
Mediation - Kikwete Travels to Nairobi
By Paul Amoru
(The Nation) Nairobi
African Union chairman, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, is due in Nairobi this afternoon to support Kofi Annan’s mediation efforts over Kenya’s political crisis.
It will be the first time for President Kikwete to visit Kenya since the country fell into a political crisis following the disputed presidential election in December.
MoreLeaders Urged to Find a Quick Solution to Crisis
The Nation (Nairobi)
By Lucas Barasa
Nairobi
President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga have been urged to speedily agree on a solution to the current political crisis in the country.
Chief mediator Kofi Annan made the call as Mr Odinga announced that power-sharing to facilitate constitutional changes was the only solution to the crisis.
Addressing journalists at Pentagon House in Nairobi after a meeting with Mr Odinga, Mr Annan said the talks between PNU and ODM that he chaired required the parties’ leaders support and political will to succeed.
MoreKenya opposition calls off protests
Al Jazeera English.
Kenya’s opposition has called off planned street protests intended to pressure the government into agreeing to a power-sharing deal.
Raila Odinga backed down over Thursday’s planned protests as he and Mwai Kibaki, the president, came under increasing pressure to reach a compromise deal to end the country’s post-election crisis.
“We ... are committed to the talks,” Odinga told reporters on Wednesday after meeting Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general who is mediating crisis talks in Kenya.
“We have postponed until further notice any actions planned for tomorrow.”