Raila takes the lead in search for a way out

Raila takes the lead in search for a way out

Published on January 3, 2008, 12:00 am


By Standard Team

ODM leader Mr Raila Odinga last night took the lead in trying to find a way out of the impasse caused by alleged fraudulent tallying of votes that cost him victory in the just completed poll and led to loss of lives.

The declaration by the Electoral Commission of Kenya that President Kibaki had won the fiercely contested poll led to spontaneous protests countrywide, and which have led to the killing of nearly 300 people.

Last night, Raila dropped the preconditions he had earlier set for talks, and declared that he was agreeing to international mediation, through which he would negotiate with Kibaki.

Raila also said he was willing to participate in an interim government whose only purpose would be to prepare for a re-run of the presidential election.

"The interim government should last no more than three months," he said, adding that such a poll should be conducted by an independent body and not the ECK, which has been discredited as partisan and whose members are President Kibaki’s appointees.

Raila’s roadmap to get the country out of the abyss it is slowly sinking into came even as suspicion, mistrust, and arrogance were evident in the Party of National Unity and his own party.