Kalonzo Meets U.S. Senators Over Crisis
By Joseph Murimi
East African Standard
Nairobi
Vice-President, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, has urged US senators and congressmen not to recommend actions that may hurt the poor in Kenya.
Kalonzo, who is in the US, assured development partners that mediation talks would resolve the political dispute.
The VP is on a tour of British and American capitals, aimed at mending the bad image Kenya has acquired lately.
In a meeting with Senator Rush Feingold of Wisconsin, who is also the Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Africa in the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations, Kalonzo said the negotiations under former UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, would find a way out of the dispute.
Feingold has sponsored a motion in the Senate on the dispute arising from the outcome of the presidential election results.
Kalonzo said the violence has been contained. He said the international community and the Government should address the plight of close to 500,000 people displaced.
The VP, however, said external solutions could not resolve the dispute. He told Feingold that Kenyans should be allowed to resolve the dispute and related issues through the courts, a truth, justice and reconciliation commission or a commission of inquiry.
“The US and other countries should encourage the Opposition to pursue its challenge of the election outcome through lawful means as outlined in our Constitution and legal system. There should be no support from foreign powers for anyone’s intent on usurping or circumventing the law,” Kalonzo said.
Feingold welcomed Kalonzo’s visit, saying the US was concerned about the situation in Kenya and that his country was looked forward to a peaceful solution to the dispute. When he met New Jersey Congressman, Mr Donald Peyne, who has also sponsored another resolution on Kenya in the Congress, Kalonzo argued that proposals for power sharing were reasonable, but such arrangements could reverse democratic gains made over the years and run contrary to the Constitution, which declares that Kenya is a multi-party democracy.
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