South African mediator bows out of Kenya crisis talks
NAIROBI (AFP) — A bid by South Africa's top apartheid-era negotiator to help broker crisis talks in Kenya failed on Monday after the government accused him of being biased in favour of the opposition.
Cyril Ramaphosa, who led the African National Congress' negotiations on black majority rule in the early 1990s, arrived in Nairobi on Friday to help former UN secretary general Kofi Annan's peace effort.
"Kofi Annan reluctantly accepts the withdrawal of Cyril Ramaphosa from the role of chief mediator. Withdrawal is a result of reservations expressed by the government," a UN official said in a statement.
Talks between representatives of President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga resumed at a Nairobi hotel after a roadmap for negotiations was reached on Friday to end the crisis triggered by disputed presidential elections in December.
But Kibaki's aides expressed concern that Ramaphosa would not be impartial, saying he had had business dealings with Odinga.
Ramaphosa, a former trade unionist who acquired a personal fortune in black empowerment investment deals in South Africa, denied Odinga was a business partner but acknowledged he had not won the trust of both ideas.
"Anybody who seeks the role of the mediator can only do so effectively if they enjoy the trust and confidence of all parties that are involved in the mediation process," he said.
"I thought that I should withdraw and go back to South Africa so that I do not become a stumbling block myself."
An opposition official said the government's refusal to support Ramaphosa's mediation was a sign that it was not serious about ending one of Kenya's worst crises since independence from Britain in 1963.
"These people are not serious about having somebody who is serious and straightforward as a mediator. They want to keep wasting time and put the country into deeper trouble," said the opposition official, who asked not to be named.
Annan's diplomatic effort is seen as the best hope of ending violence that has left more than 1,000 people dead and between 250,000 and 300,000 displaced in Kenya, traditionally an bedrock of stability in east Africa.
The focal point of most of the violence, the Rift Valley in western Kenya, remained tense after 74 people died over the weekend in violence pitting ethnic Kisiis and Kalenjins. Of those, about 20 Kalenjins died in clashes with police.
Hundreds of Kikuyus, Kenya's dominant tribe, fled a small village outside Molo township in western Kenya over the weekend, saying they had been threatened by Kalenjins.
"The Kalenjins came on Friday night and started burning houses. My father told me that we had to come out and defend ourselves, but they were too many for us," said 14-year-old Evans Njoroge.
"They burnt our house and our foodstore and we had to flee and spend the night outside," he said after arriving at the regional capital Nakuru, which has also been torn by recent tribal killings.
The Kikuyus, who are Kibaki's tribe, suffered heavily in the first wave of violence following the December 27 vote at the hands of Odinga's Luo tribe and other ethnic groups, but there has since been numerous revenge attacks.
The weeks of turmoil have delivered a major blow to Kenya's tourism industry, the top source of foreign exchange revenue, while tea production and agriculture has also been hard hit.
In Nakuru, district commissioner Wilfred Wanyangah said the number of displaced people had increased from 14,000 to 26,000 over the past three weeks as villagers flee tense rural areas.
"This crisis has overwhelmed us and we were not prepared for it. So we are calling on all corporate institutions to respond to the humanitarian crisis at hand," he told reporters in the northwestern town of Nakuru.
At the talks in Nairobi, the negotiating teams were briefed on the humanitarian situation by the head of the Kenya Red Cross, Abbas Gullet.
Both sides have pledged to address the emergency needs of tens of thousands of Kenyans languishing in makeshift camps across the country.
Annan has set a deadline of seven to 15 days to resolve the crisis over the December 27 election that Odinga claims was rigged and international observers have said was flawed.
