Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan sought yesterday to quickly shore up his peace effort in Kenya as weeks of explosive violence showed no sign of abating, with scores killed over the weekend.
Annan met representatives of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga at a Nairobi hotel after the sides on Friday agreed to a "roadmap" for negotiations to end the crisis over flawed elections in December.
"The dialogue has resumed and both sides have reiterated their determination to end the crisis, giving priority to ending the fighting," a foreign ministry official said.
PHOTO: AFP
Annan's mediation effort has been seen as the nation's best hope of ending violence that has left more than 1,000 people dead and between 250,000 and 300,000 displaced in once stable Kenya.
Police said 74 people died over three days last weekend during fighting in the volatile west, this time pitting ethnic Kisiis and Kalenjins. About 20 Kalenjins died in clashes with police after attacking a police station.
Members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe suffered heavily in the first wave of violence at the hands of Odinga's Luo tribe and other ethnic groups, but have since carried out numerous revenge attacks.
Western Kenya remained tense as police vowed to take on roaming bands of armed youths who on Friday attacked a local police station and stole weapons.
Hundreds of ethnic Kikuyus, Kenya's dominant tribe, fled a small village outside Molo township in western Kenya over the weekend, saying they had been threatened by rival Kalenjins.
"The Kalenjins came on Friday night and started burning houses," 14-year-old Evans Njoroge said.
Annan has set a deadline of seven to 15 days to resolve all outstanding issues from the Dec. 27 election that Odinga claims was rigged and international observers have said was flawed.
Meanwhile, South African business tycoon Cyril Ramaphosa, chosen by Annan to head long-term mediation efforts in Kenya, pulled out yesterday because of reservations expressed by the Kenyan government.
"Kofi Annan reluctantly accepts the withdrawal of Cyril Ramaphosa from the role of chief mediator. Withdrawal is a result of reservations expressed by the government," a UN official said.
Kenyan officials have said that Ramaphosa, the chief negotiator for South Africa's African National Congress in talks that produced a peaceful end to apartheid in 1994, has business links to Kenyan opposition leader Odinga.
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