Kenyan president and opposition meet after election fraud claims
Bid to unify East African country and avoid risk of ethnic conflict
Kenya’s president and opposition leader have met for talks, months after the presidential elections sparked turmoil as the opposition claimed there was electoral fraud.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and former prime minister Raila Odinga launched a new initiative to unify the country as their rival parties largely divide the country along tribal lines, raising fears of ethnic violence.
It was not known if demands by Mr Odinga for new elections were discussed and journalists were not allowed to ask questions when yesterday’s announcement was made.
The meeting did not happen as the result of pressure from Western countries and there was no external pressure on the two leaders from western countries, specifically the US for the leaders to hold the talks ahead of US secretary of state Rextillerson’sthree-dayvisitwhich began yesterday.
“This is a purely domestic initiative,” Mr Odinga’s spokesman Dennis Onyango said.
Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga met publicly at a funeral where they shook hands earlier this year, but they did not have talks.
Mr Odinga has said Kenya has never dealt with the challenge “that our diversity [different tribes] was always going to pose to our efforts to create a prosperous and united nation...the time has come for us to confront and resolve our differences.
“These differences are becoming too entrenched.”
Mr Odinga’s and Mr Kenyatta’s fathers were allies in the struggle for Kenya’s independence from British colonial rule and then became adversaries.
Now the sons have extended the family rivalry by ethnic allegiances and personality politics. The two men, who also faced off in a 2013 election marred by opposition allegations of vote-rigging, are vying for power in East Africa’s economic hub that plays a key role in the Western-backed fight against neighbouring Somalia’s Islamic extremists.
For many observers, the historical divisions between the Kenyatta and Odinga dynasties and the ethnic groups they represent cloud the promise of Kenya’s democracy.
Mr Kenyatta said he and Mr Odinga had reached an understanding “that this country of Kenya is greater than any one individual. And for this country to come together, leaders must come together.”
Mr Odinga pressed a lawsuit challenging Mr Kenyatta’s victory in last year’s August election and the Supreme Court ordered a new election.
Mr Odinga boycotted the repeat election in October, saying adequate electoral reforms had not been made.
On 30 January, Mr Odinga held a protest event which was a mock inauguration in which he was sworn in as the “people’s president”.