Up to 1,000 dead in Kenya violence: opposition leader
Pastor Dale Morgan
Up to 1,000 dead in Kenya violence: opposition leader*
Reuters
Monday, January 7, 2008; 9:02 AM
NAIROBI (Reuters) - African Union mediation to end Kenya's post-election
turmoil, in which up to 1,000 people may have died, could start on
Wednesday, opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Monday.
Odinga told Reuters AU chairman John Kufuor, the president of Ghana,
would arrive on Tuesday night. "He will be ready to begin chairing the
talks on Wednesday," he said.
Asked about the death toll in a week of violence since the disputed
re-election of President Mwai Kibaki, which the government puts at 486,
he said it was "closer to a thousand."
Odinga said in an interview with Reuters that he had spoken to Kufuor by
telephone after talks earlier on Monday with U.S. Assistant Secretary of
State for Africa Jendayi Frazer.
He said Kufuor "confirmed to me that he has now received an invitation
from (President Mwai) Kibaki to come and chair mediation talks."
This was a "major, major breakthrough" and a "very significant move," he
said.
(Reporting by Barry Moody & Andrew Cawthorne)