Kenya Political Negotiations Resume

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19 February 2008

Negotiations aimed at ending a political deadlock in Kenya have resumed after a four-day pause.  While both the government and opposition continue to express optimism that the talks will succeed, there has as yet been little indication of a political compromise acceptable to both sides.  Derek Kilner reports from Nairobi.

The issue of power-sharing is at the center of the current discussions.  The negotiating teams agreed on Tuesday to form a committee to explore possible coalition arrangements.

A top member of the Orange Democratic Movement, Charity Ngilu, says the negotiations, mediated by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have been hampered by a failure to acknowledge the urgency of the crisis by President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity, or PNU.

"Our team who are sitting in the Kofi Annan mediation are saying that it's progressing well," Ngilu said. "Only they're saying that the PNU do not seem to have understood the magnitude of the problem."

Mr. Annan met with President Kibaki on Tuesday to discuss the negotiations, following a similar meeting between Mr. Annan and Odinga on Monday.

Also on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a one-day visit to Kenya, urged the two sides to reach a power-sharing agreement, prompting Kenyan government officials, including the foreign minister, to stress that political solutions should not be imposed from outside.

So far, the two sides have agreed to review the constitution and to take steps to address the humanitarian crisis in the country.  Political violence, much of it along ethnic lines, has killed an estimated 1,000 people and driven some 600,000 from their homes since the election.

Many fear renewed unrest if the Annan-led negotiation fail to secure an agreement.