US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged Kenya's rival politicians to share power, stepping up weeks of international pressure and holding out better relations with the US as an incentive.
Rice, on a one-day trip to Kenya on Monday, was the highest-ranking US official to visit since the flawed Dec. 27 presidential election unleashed weeks of bloodshed. The violence has killed more than 1,000 people and tarnished the image of Kenya, a US ally in the war on terror in Africa.
"I frankly believe that the time for a political settlement was yesterday," Rice said after meetings with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says the election was stolen. She also met former UN chief Kofi Annan, who is mediating peace talks.
Odinga expressed similar sentiments, saying his party had hoped a deal would have been reached sooner.
The opposition leader also outlined for the first time publicly his party's proposals for ending the stalemate, which were submitted to Annan. They include having Kibaki share power with a prime minister and two deputy prime ministers.
Rice said she would "emphasize that there is a lot to be gained in a relationship with the United States through resolution of this political crisis."
Rice said the US was ready to help rebuild destroyed homes and resettle the displaced -- but only once the rivals made a deal to end the crisis.
"I want to be very clear: The current stalemate and the circumstances are not going to permit business as usual with the United States," she said.
The election, which observers say was rigged, returned Kibaki to power for a second five-year term after Odinga's lead evaporated overnight. The controversy has stirred up grievances over land and poverty that have bedeviled Kenya since independence in 1963.
Much of the fighting has pitted other ethnic groups against Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long resented for dominating politics and the economy. The violence at the hands of thugs armed with poisoned arrows and machetes has been shockingly brutal in a country once considered among the most stable in Africa.
Washington is pressing Kenya's rivals to strike a power-sharing deal to end the turmoil that has engulfed much of the country. Rice was clear about what Washington wants to see in Kenya, repeatedly stressing the need for a power-sharing deal.
"They need to share power and share responsibility for the governing of this country," she said.
Over the weekend, the top US State Department official for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, warned that Washington was considering targeted sanctions against anyone who stands in the way of a power-sharing deal.
Annan announced last week that the rivals had agreed to an independent review of the election and to draw up a new constitution within a year, which could pave the way for a prime minister's post or another way to share power. Talks were to continue yesterday.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
TICKING CLOCK: A path to a budget agreement was still possible, the president’s office said, as a debate on reversing an increase of the pension age carries on French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday was racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of outgoing French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis. The presidency late on Wednesday said that Macron would name a new prime minister within 48 hours, indicating that the appointment would come by this evening at the latest. Lecornu told French television in an interview that he expected a new prime minister to be named — rather than early legislative elections or Macron’s resignation — to resolve the crisis. The developments were the latest twists in three tumultuous
RSS