South Africa refuses to recognize Kibaki

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South Africa refuses to recognize Kibaki

Posted on Friday 8 February 2008 - 13:45
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Evans Wafula, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
The Government yesterday reacted to recent remarks by South Africa that it will not recognize President Mwai Kibaki and has imposed travel bans on Kenyan leaders following the electoral feud in the country.

The Kenyan government and the leaders of Kibaki’s PNU party declared that they were shocked by that attitude that which, they say, is likely to harm the ongoing talks. PNU's legal advisor Mutula Kilonzo to the mediation accused South Africa of undermining the sovereignty of Kenya."The international community is undermining the talks and specifically South Africa, Canada and the United States are not honesty", said KilonzoThe US has also issued travel bans on key politicians from both the PNU and ODM whom it accuses of bearing the greatest responsibility in the post-election conflict.Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula maintained that the travel bans are illegal and will not serve any purpose, a statement that contradicts the government spokesman’s positive attitude towards the travel bans. In a statement posted in the government communications website, the government has welcomed the decision by the US and Canadian governments to bar leaders who participated in ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity during the post election but has encouraged them to let the world know who the said individuals are."l have advised my colleagues in both PNU and ODM to ignore the travel ban. Its shocking that some of our colleagues have been informed that they will not be issued with visas to travel to the United States", said Wetangula.The diplomatic offensive between Kenya and South Africa played in the open soon after South African Businessman and renowned negotiator Cyril Ramaposa was rejected by PNU team.The PNU accused Ramaposa of being a close associate of ODM's Raila Odinga.Justice and Constitution minister Martha Karua warned that she expects the UK to also issue travel bans targeting government officials in retaliation to the move by Government to ban former UK ambassador to Kenya Sir Edward Clay from visiting Kenya."These are tactics being used against us by the US and the UK to intimidate us over our position to ban certain individuals from entering Kenya", says Karua.Kenya slipped in to post-election violence after the disputed Dec 27 election after the ECK declared President Mwai Kibaki as the winner of the polls.Over 1000 people have since been killed and over 500,000 are displaced