Kenyans flee machete-wielding mobs
Pastor Dale Morgan
Kenyans flee machete-wielding mobs*
* Story Highlights
* Refugees flee western Kenya amid fresh violence as president names
cabinet
* President Kibaki visits refugees, vows no one will be chased from
where they live
* Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga rejects invitation to meet
with the Kibaki
* African Union chairman in Kenya to mediate between rival factions
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Hundreds of Kenyans fearing new political
violence fled the country's west Wednesday, but the president urged
refugees not to abandon their homes and insisted he would hold onto
power despite allegations he stole an election.
People queue as food is distributed in Nairobi's Kibera slum.
Diplomats worked to end a conflict that has killed more than 500 people
since the December 27 presidential vote. President Mwai Kibaki assured
the visiting African Union chairman Wednesday that he was ready for
dialogue, although he has resisted outside mediation and the opposition
insists it will not negotiate without it.
Kibaki made his first trip to a trouble spot, addressing more than 1,000
refugees in western Kenya, many of whom had fled blazing homes, pursued
by rock-throwing mobs wielding machetes and bows and arrows.
"Do not be afraid. The government will protect you. Nobody is going to
be chased from where they live," Kibaki said at a school transformed
into a camp for the displaced in the corn-farming community of Burnt Forest.
"Those who have been inciting people and brought this mayhem will be
brought to justice." He indicated he would not consider demands for a
new election or vote recount.
The election "is finished and anybody who thinks they can turn it around
should know that it's not possible and it will never be possible," he said.
Hundreds of Kenyans fled the western town of Kisumu, fearing more strife
after Kibaki named half of a new Cabinet, a lineup packed with his allies.
With suitcases on their heads and frightened children grabbing at their
skirts, ethnic Kamba women searched for transportation out of Kisumu
after one of their tribe was named vice president. Seven buses and two
dozen cars overloaded with people who waited on a police escort to try
to reach Nairobi.
On the road to the capital, dozens of angry youths brandishing sticks
burned tires to block the route. "If elections fail, violence prevails!"
they shouted.
Thousands of people from Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe have already been chased
or burned out of their homes in Kisumu in a week of riots and ethnic
clashes following the disputed elections.
"Our lives are in danger. Now those things that happened to the Kikuyu
will happen to the Kamba," businessman Isaac Notuva said at the Kisumu
bus station, where fares doubled overnight.
Salim Lone, a spokesman for Odinga's party, said Kibaki's Cabinet
announcement was "a slap in the face" and was intended to undermine the
AU-mediated talks on the crisis.
The Cabinet members announced by Kibaki included no portfolios for
members of Odinga's party.
Most posts went to members of Kibaki's party, although Kalonzo Musyoka,
a minor presidential candidate who won just 9 percent of votes, was
named vice president and another member of Kalonzo's party was named
information minister.
In a statement, Kibaki indicated there still was room for the main
opposition party in his full Cabinet. "It is envisioned that this
government will be established as a result of a constructive and
inclusive dialogue. Nothing is ruled out in this process," he said.
He assured AU chairman John Kufuor, the president of Ghana, that he had
already initiated a process of dialogue with other Kenyan leaders,"
according to a government statement.
But on Tuesday, Odinga rejected Kibaki's invitation to talks as a
"public relations gimmickry" intended to deflect attention from
international mediation.
Odinga met Wednesday with Kufuor and four former African heads of state.
He said he told the statesmen "we want peace to return to our country
... There cannot be lasting peace without justice."
According to a Kenyan government Web site, Kibaki won 4,584,721 votes or
47 percent of the ballots cast, against Odinga's 4,352,993, or 44 percent.
However, even the chairman of the country's electoral commission has
said he is not sure Kibaki won. The top American envoy to Africa,
Jendayi Frazer, said this week that the vote count at the heart of the
dispute was tampered with and both sides could have been involved.
Odinga's party won 95 parliament seats and Kibaki's party 43 in
legislative elections held the same day as the presidential elections,
meaning it will be difficult for Kibaki to govern without making some
overture to Odinga.
U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama -- whose late father was Kenyan
-- called Odinga to urge a peaceful resolution. Obama spokesman Robert
Gibbs said the senator spoke to Odinga on Monday for about five minutes.
Odinga said on British Broadcasting Corp. radio that Obama's father was
his maternal uncle, and that Obama called him twice "in the midst of his
campaigning ... to express his concern and to say that he is also going
to call President Kibaki so that Kibaki agrees to find a negotiated,
satisfactory solution to this problem."
Kenya is an ally in the United States' war on terrorism and has turned
over dozens of people to the U.S. and Ethiopia as suspected terrorists.
The country allows American forces to operate from Kenyan bases and
conducts joint exercises with U.S. troops in the region.
The U.S. also is a major donor to Kenya, long seen as a stable democracy
in a region that includes war-ravaged Somalia and Sudan. Aid amounts to
roughly $1 billion a year, said U.S. Embassy spokesman T.J. Dowling