By MATTHEW ROSENBERG
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Peace talks to end postelection bloodshed in Kenya moved to a secret location Tuesday for a final push. Negotiators said the opposition has proposed sharing power with the government for two years and then holding new elections.
Progress at the talks has given a sense of hope to many Kenyans, who have seen more than 1,000 people die and some 600,000 flee their homes in violence that followed the Dec. 27 election. Much of the upheaval has pitted ethnic groups linked to politicians against one another.
Negotiators have talked to the media nearly every day — and, on at least one occasion, said a deal had been struck when it hadn’t. Trying to get them to focus on the task at hand, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan declared a news blackout and moved the talks to a secret location outside Nairobi, his office said in a statement.
Annan, who is mediating the talks, “urged the parties not to discuss issues under negotiations with anyone outside the negotiating room,” the statement said.
Before heading into the sequestered talks, both sides offered a glimpse of what is on the table.
The opposition proposal includes “forming a broad-based government that lasts for two years,” said William Ruto, an opposition lawmaker.
He said that during the two years of power sharing, the government should change the constitution and come up with a plan to rebuild areas devastated by violence. He also suggested a truth and justice commission to look into land disputes.
Government negotiator Mutula Kilonzo confirmed that the president’s party had received the proposal and would debate it “to see if we can reach an agreement.” He told The Associated Press the constitution gives the president the power to appoint opposition members to his Cabinet.
The opposition charges that President Mwai Kibaki stole the election. The government insists the vote was free and fair, despite heavy criticism from international and domestic observers.
Annan urged legislators to enact laws to resolve the political turmoil, such as land reform. “You will need to work together to implement this heavy agenda. Your active involvement across party lines is necessary,” he told a special session of Parliament.
The former U.N. secretary-general said the two parties have agreed to form an independent commission to examine the electoral commission, which has faced heavy criticism for certifying Kibaki’s victory.
“Let’s pull together and get it done,” Annan said. “We can’t afford to fail.”
The strife has gutted the country’s once-booming economy and left its democratic reputation in tatters.
The ethnic component to the violence, meanwhile, has polarized Kenyans like never before. In many place, members of some tribes have been forced to flee their homes and many people are moving to their group’s historic homelands, even if they themselves had never lived there.
Ruto, the opposition negotiator, said Friday that a power-sharing deal already had been struck. Annan later called the announcement premature, although he said the sides had made significant progress.
Despite Ruto’s statement, it’s unclear where main opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says the presidency was stolen from him, stands on the issue. In the past week, he has backed off demands that Kibaki resign when speaking to reporters in English only to reiterate them while addressing supporters in Kiswahili, East Africa’s common tongue.
Associated Press reporter Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi contributed to this story.
3 thoughts on “Kenya opposition proposed power sharing for 2 years”
Unlike the three fold Ethiopian people, the Kenyan people is having a strong and uninterrupted riot against the rigged vote. What a strong, heroic, and dedicated people they are!
To the contrary, in Ethiopia where there was a landslide victory by the opposition, there was no as such a strong uprising despite the detention of the leaders. So, if the people don’t stand for their right how can a change be anticipated? Can anybody tell me any history of successful public uprising aginst the dictator regimes in Ethiopia? Don’t tell me that it is because of lack of determined leader. What kind of leader do we expect other than those being jailed for a couple of years? I think rather the woyanne is becoming more dictator and brutal because of lack of major public resistance. Where is the bunch of heroic history to our people? Only against colonialism? I think that was also in fear of the existing regime. Where is the exemplary of our people to oppose tyranny? I think if the people don’t safeguard the vote results whoelse can then safeguard the future peaceful struggle?
I remember an article written by a female A.A.U student saying, “I can’t prove the heroic nature of Etiopian people. They don’t respond while we were beaten by police, passing by our sides…”
If there was true public struggle, the city of A.A could have brougt significant change. Without sacrifice how can we succeed? Rather than being abused and jailed at every corner of the country,why don’t we stand together for one goal, the rule of law and democracy?
Sorry guys, it may irritate some of you but this is the truth.
viva kenyan opposition!
Dear BDJ,
I agree with most of what you have said. If the people came out in large number cities after cities, the Hodams around Meles were on the verge of abandoning him, preparing their ticket for a way out of the country. However, the blame also lies on the leaders. The leaders arrested the momentum which was developing by appearing distant from the people’s uprising and by their attempt to impress the Western emissaries. Instead of embracing or leading the people’s protest, and use it as their powerful bargaining tool in their confrontation with the government, they were running away from it if one remembers the statements they were making at the time. Some were even refering the people’s protest as a riot like Meles’ propaganda machine. Their biggest mistake was when they called off the strike & stay home campaign, the concession they made to please the Western emissaries. They miscalculated big time by believing too much the double-tongued Western emissaries. They thought they would get the desired outcome by impressing upon the Western emissaries. They did not know that when they had the people’s power behind them, the West was desperate to talk to them. When the people’s revolt start gaining momentum, not only the West was ready to talk to the opposition but also showed sudden respect to the Ethiopian diaspora which they have refused to acknowledge in the past. This was for a reason none other than shrewd calculation of safeguarding the West’s interst in the region incase the balance of power tilt to the opposition. When the opposition leaders called off the strike and arrested the momentum of the people’s revolt, It is that bargaining tool they have exchanged with the “good will” of the western emissaries.
I guess the West is concocting the same trick on Kenyan opposition currently in the guise of mediation by their errand boy Kofi Annan. I hope the Kenyan opposition stood its ground and say no to sub-standard democracy which the West says Africans should be content with.
The irony in our case was the statement our leaders have issued after they were imprisoned was radically different from what they were saying during the people’s uprising. It could have made big difference if they had made such statements while the people’s revolt was undergoing. Secondly, one can cite as lack of leadership when the opposition leaders fail to coordinate the people’s revolt in different cities. The protest rallies in Addis was not followed by other cities in the immediate aftermath. The protests in Ambo later on Bahr dar, Jimma & Awasa looked like isolated incidents, making it easy for Meles’s forces to squash them prematurely.