Spring in Bavaria

Raila rules out becoming Kibaki’s prime minister

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has ruled out the option of taking up the post of prime minister in President Kibaki’s government as a way of ending the current political crisis.

ODM leader Raila Odinga speaks with Mr Ali Treki, the Libyan minister of African Affairs and secretary to the African Union at the Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi. The minister is in the AU mediation team. Photo/ANTHONY KAMAU.

Speaking a day after the first meeting with the President since the disputed elections, Mr Odinga said the only options on the table for discussion were the resignation of President Kibaki and a re-run of the presidential elections, possibly with formation of a transitional government to take charge pending new elections.

“I have never said I was considering taking up a position of prime minister under Kibaki,” he said and promised to meet the President again for talks on equal terms.

“I would meet Kibaki again but he should stop making embarrassing remarks like being ‘duly elected’. He should not call himself, the duly-elected and sworn-in president. That is the bone of contention,” Mr Odinga said.

The Lang’ata MP described the meeting between him and President Kibaki on Thursday arranged by mediator Kofi Annan as “useful” but insisted that justice must be done.

Mr Odinga ruled out the prime minister option as the Annan mediation team spent the day trying to understand the electoral process and what could have gone wrong.

Having already received presentations and documents from the Kibaki and Odinga teams, with each side trying to show they won the elections, the former UN secretary general met members of the Electoral Commission.

The team — that includes former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa and Mrs Graca Machel, the wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela — struck a first on Thursday when it succeeded in bringing President Kibaki and Mr Odinga for a face-to-face meeting at Harambee House, Nairobi.

A top UN official attached to Mr Annan’s secretariat at the Serena Hotel told the Saturday Nation that the validity of President Kibaki’s victory was on the table for scrutiny, among other issues. “The validity of the leadership of this country is among the issues that are on the table. It is an issue that is at the heart of the stalemate and the team is interested in it,” said the official.

The issue was placed before the team by Mr Odinga and the ODM Pentagon members on Wednesday. Mvita MP Najib Balala said: “The first thing that we stated was that Kibaki (President) must accept that he lost the elections to our captain (Mr Odinga). We presented all the information we have to justify our position.”

The matter of President Kibaki’s legitimacy came into sharp focus at the meeting on Thursday designed for President Kibaki and Mr Odinga to make a joint appearance, publicly commit to the search for a solution and also call for peace. 

Duly elected

The ODM team was annoyed with President Kibaki’s speech which emphasised that he “was sworn in as the duly elected  President of Kenya”.

Immediately after the encounter ODM secretary general Anyang’ Nyong’o convened a Press conference and denounced the President’s remarks.

“Mr Mwai Kibaki abused the occasion by attempting to legitimise his usurpation of the presidency. His demeaning and unacceptable behaviour was meant to undermine the mediation and prolong the suffering of the people of Kenya,” he said.

President Kibaki was declared the winner after receiving 4,584,721 votes against Mr Odinga’s 4,352,993. Saturday Nation has also established that President Kibaki and a team of  ministers in his reconciliation committee have put up their own case before the Annan team to prove the case that the Head of State was in office legitimately.

President Kibaki and the team led by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka met Mr Annan on Thursday morning at State House where they presented documents on the tallying of election results, rigging in some areas and the violence that has rocked the country since the announcement of the election results, which they say was planned beforehand. 

Sources at the meeting said the Kibaki team ruled out a re-run of elections on grounds that nearly 500,000 voters displaced and hundreds killed would be denied a chance to vote for their preferred leader. Other sources say that the Kibaki team has also ruled out power sharing, saying they cannot share power with a group they accuse of organising the killings.  

Share power

On the disputed vote tally, Mr Annan Friday sought clarification from the Electoral Commission of Kenya team led by chairman Samuel Kivuitu during a morning meeting at Serena Hotel.

But the ECK team said the votes could not be recounted or re-tallied unless in compliance with a court ruling. They assured the Annan team that they were ready to carry out the exercise if ODM went to court.

When he emerged from the meeting, Mr Kivuitu said they had given the mediation team all information on the tallying of the votes at Kenyatta International Conference Centre. “They wanted to expand their knowledge on what happened. We explained how the tallying process went on that day and why we announced the results that we had,” he said.

A source at the meeting said the ECK team took the mediators through the tallying process, the announcement of the results and the advice they have since given to the aggrieved party to seek legal redress.

The commissioners blamed politicians for the chaotic scenes at the KICC during tallying and the continuing mayhem in the country. Mr Kivuitu and his commissioners warned that unless changes were made to the Constitution, the next General Election would be a nearly impossible task.

Announced results

However, Mr Kivuitu dismissed calls for the disbandment of the commission following its admission that the elections results it announced were fraught with irregularities.

“Why should anyone want us disbanded? We did not beat anybody nor harass anyone. We only announced results and we have advised anyone aggrieved to go to court. That is why we have courts in the first place,” he said.

Mr Annan’s team also met leaders of the inter-religious forum who condemned the polarisation in the country and proposed a three-level approach to solving the political crisis.

The former UN boss urged the leaders to use the pulpit to restore peace and work alongside politicians to ensure Kenya’s stability.

“They have told us of the suffering and pain among their congregations. We have pleaded with them to use their churches and mosques to bring peace. Political leaders alone cannot make; all of us will,” he said.

Mr Annan used the occasion to caution leaders against using inciting and inflammatory words in their public pronouncements. 

“We have also discussed the use words which can be very soothing. However, words can also create tensions, hatred and hostility. We must watch the words we say and how we use them,” he said.

National Council of Churches of Kenya secretary general Peter Karanja, who spoke on behalf of the religious group, urged politicians to accommodate each other’s views, holding that the country had gone beyond the democratic tenet of winner takes it all. “Kenya is beyond a situation of winner takes it all. They have to accommodate each other although we doubt if they appreciate the current state of issues,” he said.

He was flanked Nairobi Catholic Archbishop John Cardinal Njue, his Anglican Church counterpart Benjamin Nzimbi and Supreme Council of Kenya Muslim’s Hussein Omar.

Story by BERNARD NAMUNANE
Publication Date: 1/26/2008

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africa, kenya

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