NAIROBI, Jan 8th. (Toronto Star) –Kenya's feuding political leaders stepped back from the brink yesterday, bowing to pressure for face-to-face negotiations as officials reassessed higher the severity of a week of bloody clashes that followed the release of disputed election results. As many as 500 people died in the spasms of ethnic and political violence that now have ebbed in all but three remote parts of Kenya, according to a new government tally released yesterday. Opposition sources said the numbers could be nearer to 1,000. President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose Orange Democratic Movement says the Dec. 27 election was stolen, are expected to meet as early as tomorrow for talks with African Union chair John Kufour, the president of Ghana. Calling the agreement for outside mediation "a major, major breakthrough," Odinga cancelled nationwide rallies planned for today, easing fears of renewed violence. While the deadliest attacks have subsided, sporadic clashes continue in remote rural areas mostly west of the capital, many pitting Odinga's Luo and allied factions against Kibaki's Kikuyu, the largest of Kenya's mosaic of 42 tribes. The rival political camps have traded accusations that grassroots party provocateurs are behind much of the violence. "Mr. Kibaki must bear responsibility for the deaths we are seeing in our country today" because of blatant "rigging" of the elections, Odinga told Sky News. Government officials, meanwhile, said officials were investigating reports of "premeditated murder" involving opposition operatives suspected of orchestrating attacks on people who were forewarned they would pay if they voted for Kibaki. An official in neighbouring Uganda told The Associated Press yesterday 30 fleeing Kenyans were thrown into the border river Saturday by Kenyan attackers, and were presumed drowned. Two Ugandan truck drivers carrying the group said they were stopped at a roadblock mounted by vigilantes who identified the refugees as Kikuyus and threw them into the deep, swift-flowing Kipkaren River, said Himbaza Hashaka, a Ugandan border official. The drivers said none survived.
The pressure to bring the two sides together was led by U.S. envoy Jendayi Frazer, who yesterday confirmed the election was rigged in her first public comments after three days of intense behind-the-scenes diplomacy. "Yes there was rigging," said Frazer, who declined to name which side took greater advantage. "I mean there were problems in the vote-counting process ... both the parties could have rigged." Frazer pointedly criticized Kenya's independent electoral commission, which after days of delay finally confirmed Kibaki's re-election, only to admit later it had been subjected to political pressure to award the victory. The collapse of confidence in the commission, which won praise for its independence in past votes, has prompted opposition leaders to insist that any recount or repeat election must include international oversight. Adding to the chaos, the Law Society of Kenya, accused electoral officials of "ineptitude," called Kibaki's swearing-in "null and void," and urged a fresh vote.
As diplomatic efforts continued, Nairobi shops and businesses reopened yesterday, bringing traffic gridlock back to the capital for the time since the crisis began. "This is the first sale I have made since Christmas," said shop clerk Elizabeth Otieno, 23, as she packaged a pair of pants for a Kenyan customer. "If we don't sell we don't eat. People are still worried. But it helps to see business coming back." Tourism, which together with the tea and coffee industries is Kenya's biggest earner, has been clobbered by the fallout with mass cancellations upwards of 60 per cent, according to government officials.
by Mitch Potter
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