Kenya govt ready for new vote if ruled by court

"Were the elections rigged or not? I think so, many think so, the

Americans think so, the British think so, and they know the country

well,"

Opposition protests in Kenya faltered on Friday and the government said it was ready to accept a court-ordered re-run of an election whose disputed result unleashed a wave of violence.

The United Nations said, however, that it was scrambling to get food to 100,000 terrified people facing starvation in western Kenya after they fled the violence, which included the burning to death of 30 people in a church.

Protesters, exhausted after hours of street battles with police on Thursday, failed to march on central Nairobi again on Friday.

"We're tired, we're not going to march," said Samuel Muhati, a resident of the Mathare slum. "Let the fighting stop."

As mediation efforts picked up pace, the government said it was ready for a re-run of the disputed December 27 vote, but only if ordered by a court.

"We would accept even another election as long as the constitution is followed. If the courts decide it, we would accept that," said Alfred Mutua, spokesman for President Mwai Kibaki.

Raila Odinga's opposition Orange Democratic Party (ODM) charges that Kibaki stole the vote to lead east Africa's biggest economy. It says the courts are packed with Kibaki allies and legal appeals could take years.

At least 300 people have died in the wave of killings that followed Kibaki's disputed victory.

Source: reuters.com via Obi-Akpere

Kenya Opposition Seeks New Vote

Kenya's opposition party called for a new presidential election to

settle a dispute over the vote that has sparked days of deadly riots,

and police hurled tear gas to scatter more than 1,000 protesters in the

coastal city of Mombasa Friday.

There was no immediate comment on the call for a new vote from the

government of President Mwai Kibaki, who is unlikely to accept such a

demand.

The U.S. and Europe were among those pushing for reconciliation, but

said a "made-in-Kenya solution" is needed to end the violence that has

killed 300 people and displaced 100,000 in what was once lauded as

among the most stable democracies in Africa.

The upheaval has spread from the capital to the coast and the

western highlands. In Mombasa, a city heavily dependent on tourism,

police scattered 1,500 protesters who were shouting "Kibaki has stolen

our vote!" There were no immediate reports of injuries.

In Nairobi, supporters of opposition candidate Raila Odinga vowed

that street protests that shook Nairobi a day earlier would continue

Friday, but by midday there no signs of a mass protest brewing. Small

groups of protesters were gathering on street corners in the slums,

though, saying they were preparing for a rally.

Source: time.com via Obi-Akpere

Kenya opposition seeks new vote

Kenya's

opposition called for a new presidential election to settle a dispute

that has sparked deadly riots from the capital to the coast, but a

government spokesman said Friday a new vote could come on only on

orders from the highest court.

"As long as the due process of law is followed and the constitution

is respected the president will obey," government spokesman Alfred

Mutua told The Associated Press. When asked if the constitution allowed

for a re-run, he said: "I doubt it."

Kenya's Supreme Court, largely appointed by President Mwai Kibaki, has so far not entered the dispute over the Dec. 27 vote.

In Mombasa,

a coastal city heavily dependent on tourism, police used tear gas to

scatter 1,500 protesters who were shouting "Kibaki has stolen our

vote!" There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Source: news.yahoo.com via Obi-Akpere

New elections called for in Kenya

Anyang Nyongo, secretary general of the Orange Democratic Movement,

said the country should start preparing "for a new election of the

president."

"This is about a democracy and justice," Nyongo told

The Associated Press. "We shall continue to defend and promote the

right of Kenyans so that the democratic process should be fulfilled."

Kenya's electoral commission said President Mwai Kibaki had won the

December 27 vote, but opposition leader Raila Odinga alleged the vote

was rigged and international observations said it was flawed.

At

least 300 people have been killed and as many as 75,000 people

internally displaced in the subsequent post-election violence, the

government said.

The International Red Cross Friday said it was

upping its effort to the region in comments reported by AP. Anna

Schaaf, spokeswoman for the Geneva-based group, said 15 staff are now

en route to the country to assess how to give the Kenyan Red Cross

enough provisions to sustain at least 100,000 people with basics for

several weeks.

On Thursday, Attorney General Amos Wako called for an independent probe of the counting.

"The level and nature of the violent protest has never before been

witnessed in our country and is quickly degenerating into a catastrophe

of unimaginable proportions," Wako said of the country's turmoil.

And, a day after the ODM was forced to cancel a public rally in Nairobi

when government forces attacked its supporters with tear gas and water

cannon, another gathering has been planned in Ohuru Park.

However, early reports indicated that the city was generally calm Friday.

But in Kibera, the country's largest slum, shops remained shut and small groups of protesters began to gather.

"We are trying to go to Uhuru Park today," said Joshua Okoth, standing

with a group of young men by the smoking remains of a former food

market.

The downtown park is a traditional meeting place for political

activists but is currently flooded with riot police, who are also

patrolling the main roads into Nairobi from the slums.

"Let people die and then there will be a change," said Okoth.

Reports of violence, looting and fires were sporadic in Nairobi's

sprawling slums, including Kibera, from which residents had left en

masse to Uhuru Park.

Video from Nairobi's outskirts showed

streets littered with broken glass, overturned Coca-Cola crates and, in

some places, fires. One man carried a sign that read: "Shame on you

Kibaki you raped our democracy."

Meanwhile, children's bodies

piled up in a Nairobi morgue, churches burned and police on horseback

chased pedestrians through the streets.

"What we have just seen

defies description," opposition leader Raila Odinga told journalists

after visiting one Nairobi morgue Thursday. "We can only describe it as

genocide on a grand scale."

Images provided to CNN by I-Reporter

Duncan Musicha Waswa showed riot police on horseback chasing citizens

on Nairobi's Bunyala Road. Those going about their daily business

raised their hands to avoid the wrath of police, Waswa told CNN.

The rally was banned by Kenya's government, which had prohibited political gatherings before the December 27 elections.

Earlier this week, the ODM posted on its Web site a call for Kibaki to protect all Kenyans.

At least 300 people have been killed and as many as 75,000 people

internally displaced in the post-election violence, the government said.

Kibaki narrowly won re-election with 51.3 percent of the vote, while

Odinga garnered 48.7 percent, the country's election commission

announced Sunday.

 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu met with Odinga and other opposition

officials Thursday and was scheduled to meet with Kibaki Friday

morning, according to the African Council of Churches.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also has sent diplomat Jendayi Frazer, who was to arrive in Kenya on Friday and meet with Kibaki, Odinga and other political leaders, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday.

Source: edition.cnn.com via Obi-Akpere

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