Kenya: Museveni Meets Raila Over Crisis

Kenya: Museveni Meets Raila Over Crisis

http://allafrica.com/stories/200801221424.html

23 January 2008Posted to the web 22 January 2008
Frank Nyakairu & AgenciesKampala
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni met embattled Kenyan leader Mwai Kibaki and the country's main opposition leader Raila Odinga, yesterday in efforts to quell a polls dispute that has left hundreds of people dead.
Mr Museveni arrived hours ahead of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who was also due to meet the warring sides to push for direct negotiations, a step which this month eluded Ghanaian President John Kufuor, the head of the African Union.

Mr Museveni first held a two-hour meeting with Mr Kibaki at State House. No other official was present the President's Press Secretary Mr Tamale Mirundi said by telephone from Nairobi.
He said he did not know what was discussed. But a top government official told Daily Monitor that Mr Museveni went to Kenya "favouring a power-sharing solution." By Press time Mr Museveni was at Nairobi's Intercontinental Hotel, where he met Mr Odinga late in the evening.
The spokesperson of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, Mr Salim Lone, told Daily Monitor that they wanted Mr Museveni to exert pressure on Mr Kibaki to resign. "We hope the evidence of vote rigging we will present before President Museveni will help him to advise his colleague to step down so that we can have a democratically elected leader," Mr Lone said by telephone.
The east African nation descended into chaos after Mr Kibaki's disputed re-election on December 27 which Mr Odinga says was rigged.
More than 650 people have been killed since in ethnic violence and clashes.
Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga have not met despite pressure from Western powers such as the United States, Britain and the European Union.
As the first and only East African leader to have congratulated Mr Kibaki, Mr Museveni's mediation efforts have already been met with scorn by opposition supporters.
"Museveni leave Kenyans alone," read one banner in the Nairobi slum of Kibera during a recent protest.
At the height of the riots two weeks ago, protestors destroyed part of the Uganda-Kenya railway, protesting against the alleged presence of Ugandan troops in Kenya.
"We are cutting this railway link connecting Uganda and Kenya to cut the supply chain to Uganda to put pressure on Uganda to withdraw its troops from Kenya," said Mr Stephen Anyang another Kibera slum resident.
There is, however, no evidence that Ugandan troops are in Kenya.
Protests continue
Mr Museveni arrived in Nairobi yesterday as Police fired teargas to disperse supporters of President Mwai Kibaki before Mr Annan starts mediating in the standoff over Kenya's election that has caused weeks of unrest.

Several hours before Mr Annan was due to arrive in Kenya, riot police scattered about 100 pro-government supporters who had been chanting "Lead on, Kibaki!" in Nairobi's central business district.
The police forced them into shops and nearby alleys. "We just want Kibaki ... The opposition has to recognise he is president," market trader Julius Kuria, 32, said among a panicked crowd of protesters engulfed by teargas.
Police have banned street protests since the election, almost all of which have been organized by the opposition.