NAIROBI (AFP) — Five people have died in clashes in recent days in western Kenya, police said Wednesday, as former UN chief Kofi Annan struggled to save talks aimed at ending a crisis sparked by December's elections.
Also Wednesday, the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) vowed fresh protests if parliament fails to meet within one week to mull constitutional changes in a bid to end the political deadlock.
But President Mwai Kibaki, while insisting that "we had an obligation to obey the constitution," said it was reconciliation time and urged the opposition to avoid "sideshows that will distract the Kenyan people from that path," his office said in a statement.
African Union Commission chief Jean Ping is expected here on Thursday for a two-day visit to assess progress made in the talks.
"In the last four days, three people have been killed in Molo and two others in Cherangani area," where thousands of livestock were also stolen, a police commander told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Police said they had boosted security in the volatile regions that were the scene of some of the worst fighting set off by the disputed December 27 re-election of Kibaki, in which more than 1,000 people died and some 300,000 were displaced.
Annan has spent more than a month in Kenya, leading talks between the camps of Kibaki and ODM chief Raila Odinga, who claims he was robbed of victory.
Washington this week pressed for a power-sharing deal, but Kibaki dampened hopes by cautioning "that any political solution that will be proposed must be in tandem with the current Kenyan constitution."
Kibaki said "the constitution must serve as a guide while the mediation team discussed what legal and institutional reforms are needed to move the country forward," his office announced after talks with Annan on Tuesday.
But the ODM accused the government of using the constitution to derail the talks that have barely made progress.
"The ODM proposes that parliament is summoned within the next one week to enact necessary changes in the constitution to implement the mediation proposals. If that does not happen, the ODM will resume peaceful mass action," ODM Secretary General Anyang Nyongo told reporters here.
"The people of Kenya are tired of the delays, tactics and excuses. We have resolved there will be mass action," said Najib Balala, another top ODM official.
But police chief Major General Mohamed Hussein Ali said he won't allow the protests.
And Kibaki warned: "As a government, we have said we will walk along the path of national reconciliation and dialogue. It is therefore not the time to engage in sideshows that will distract the Kenyan people from this path."
A joint government-opposition legal panel formed to find a way out of the crisis reported progress on a power-sharing proposal, but details of the discussion remained sketchy.
To assist the panel, Annan asked the former UN Legal Counsel Hans Corell of Sweden to assist the the panel deal with legal issues.
Launched by the AU, Annan's mediation is seen as Kenya's best hope for a political solution to move beyond the violence which saw Kenyans killed by machete-wielding mobs, burnt in churches and driven off their land.
Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said forces were "working very hard to ensure that there is preservation of peace."
Meanwhile, police overnight descended on the capital's Mathare slums and evicted dozens of families from Odinga's Luo tribe who had refused to pay rent over the past months, local police commander Jasper Ombati told reporters.
Ensuing fighting resulted in the burning of a minibus and many casualties.
Also Wednesday, Kenya's Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai said she had received death threats from a banned Mungiki armed sect over her stand on crisis.
"I found the message (SMS) that read 'because of opposing the government at all times, Professor Wangari Mathaai, we have decided to look for your head very soon. Chunga maisha yako (Take care of your life),'" she told reporters.
Police also killed two members of Mungiki, blamed for a string of grisly beheadings last year, in a Nairobi suburb after they were caught extorting from the public.
The political crisis has tapped into simmering resentment over land, poverty and the dominance of the Kikuyu, Kibaki's tribe, in Kenyan politics and business since independence from Britain in 1963.
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