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Kenyan ambassador talks of post-election political strife Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The Kenyan ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that civil unrest and violence that have shrouded his country since the December presidential election has subsided and negotiations are under way to end the turmoil. "There is no more violence ... it's back to normal," Ambassador Peter Ogego said in a speech at the Clinton School of Public Service. Ogego, who is also the Kenyan ambassador to Mexico and Columbia, said former U.N. chief Kofi Annan is moderating peace talks. More than 1,000 people have been killed and more than 500,000 have fled their homes since violence erupted in the country following the Dec. 27 presidential election, according to news reports. The violence occurred after Kenya's election commission announced that incumbent President Mwai Kibaki had been narrowly re-elected. Supporters of Kibaki's top rival, Raila Odinga, however, claimed election fraud, arguing that not all of the votes had been counted. Odinga called for Kibaki to step down. The head of the election commission later said he was not sure who had won and that he had been pressured into making his original announcement. The resulting violence, according to news reports, involved mostly ethnic factions, or tribes, supporting Kibaki and Odinga. One of the proposed solutions is for Kibaki and Odinga to share governmental power for two years and then hold new elections. "We have left everything for Kofi Annan and his team," Ogego told reporters Tuesday when asked about the idea of the two rivals sharing power. He said Kibaki "obviously is very open to which ever argument that is reached." Ogego said he had just learned the two sides were going to meet and that there was a news black out for two hours. "Everybody should wait and maybe they come back with some breakthrough, so we're very helpful," he said. During his nearly hour-long speech, Ogego also spoke of the strong relationship between the African country and the United States. "American interest is so huge," he said, noting that every year thousands of Kenyan students travel to the U.S. to attend college, and more than half of the members of the country's parliament studied in the U.S. "We eat your food, we sing your songs," he said. |
