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.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese