Kenyan president, would-be PM to visit conflict refugees
NAIROBI (AFP) — Kenya's president and his main opposition rival will this week visit displaced people in the Rift Valley region in a show of unity after the post-election violence, officials said Wednesday.
The visit to the internally displaced people (IDPs) will the the first joint tour by President Mwai Kibaki and opposition rival Raila Odinga, who is bidding for the prime minister's post.
"The tour will be relevant to the IDPs because the entire government machinery will also move there to assess their needs," Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka told parliament late Tuesday.
The visit aimed to assure the people that calm had returned, that they could go home, and that they would receive receive government help to do so, he added.
The trip is seen as cementing the two leaders' signing of a power-sharing accord in February that halted the tribal fighting and revenge killings that had claimed at least 1,500 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
It was not clear when and what part of the Rift Valley the two leaders would tour.
Agriculturalists have warned that the country faces a grain shortage in the coming months because food reserves were destroyed and insecurity has blocked farming in the breadbasket area. This has resulted to increased food shortage.
Standard newspaper said resettling the displaced is urgent.
"Apart from the squalor in IDP camps, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks, many are concerned that planting season activities such as tilling of land have not begun in many areas," the Standard's editorial said.
Odinga accused Kibaki of rigging the December 27 presidential elections, touching off a wave of violence, prompting former UN chief Kofi Annan to step in and mediate a power-sharing accord that was reached on February 28.
Kenya is still recovering from what was one of its worst crises since independence from Britain in 1963, which affected the key tourism and agricultural sectors.
The two leaders have been holding a series of talks for dividing up cabinet posts nearly a week after parliament enacted laws entrenching the coalition government in the constitution.
Kenyan newspapers pressed the pair to finalise the talks and name a coalition cabinet, in which Odinga is expected to be prime minister.
"What may have appeared as a clear-cut deal is proving rather tricky," said the mass circulation Daily Nation in its editorial.
"Apparently, there are many vested interests that are making it extremely difficult for the two main players to make a quick decision."
Meanwhile, Kenyan security forces combed the country's western region in search of members of the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF), a militia which has been fighting against the government over land claims.
Government troops backed by helicopters have been sweeping the restive area in an operation that has claimed at least eight lives. The militia's activities have claimed hundreds of lives and displaced tens of thousands since last year.
"Most of the SLDF leaders are hiding, but we will not stop the operation until all the criminals are apprehended and stability is restored in the area," police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told AFP.
Kiraithe said stability has been restored in most parts of the country, home to 35 million people.
