Kenyan opposition offers power-sharing plan
A sign daubed on the wall of a destroyed house in Nairob's Kibera slum. Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Kenya's opposition revealed today it had offered to share power with the president, Mwai Kibaki, in return for fresh elections in 2010.
Kenya's opposition revealed today it had offered to share power with the president, Mwai Kibaki, in return for fresh elections in 2010.
The offer was made at talks aimed at resolving the crisis that followed December's disputed poll and which so far has cost 1,000 lives and forced around 600,000 people to flee their homes.William Ruto, a senior figure in the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, said the proposals involved forming a "broad-based government that lasts for two years".
The offer marks a breakthrough as the opposition had insisted it would only discuss sharing power if Kibaki admitted rigging the vote.
Ruto said the proposed coalition should reform the constitution and electoral commission over the next two years and plan to rebuild areas destroyed in the violence. He also suggested a truth and justice commission to look into land disputes that have fanned the violence.
Government negotiator Mutula Kilonzo confirmed the president's party had received the proposals and would debate them "to see if we can reach an agreement".
He said the current constitution gives the president the power to appoint opposition members to his cabinet.
Meanwhile, the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who has been leading the mediation, called for new laws to resolve the turmoil.
"It will be critical that a legislative agenda be agreed so that we can move forward expeditiously with the important business of reform," said Annan at a special parliamentary session.
"You will need to work together to implement this heavy agenda. Your active involvement across party lines is necessary. We can't afford to fail."
Ruto said last week that a power-sharing deal had been struck.
Annan branded such an announcement as "premature", although he said both sides had made significant progress towards a deal.
It is unclear where the main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, stands on a power-sharing compromise.
Speaking to supporters in western Kenya on Saturday, he said Kibaki "must step down or there must be a re-election - in this I will not be compromised". On Sunday, Odinga said he was prepared for "giving and taking".
Odinga's supporters have applied their own pressure. In the opposition leader's western Kenyan base, they have threatened to burn down Odinga's farm and a family-owned factory if he returns as anything less than president.
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