Efforts to Resolve Kenya’s Election Crisis Continue; CCD Board Member David Kilgour Urges Canadian Government to Call for New Elections
By Daniel Hollingsworth
January 9, 2008

International efforts to bring about a peaceful resolution in Kenya following December 27 elections have increased over recent days.  Voice of America reports that “Several days of shuttle diplomacy conducted by influential figures such as South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer have failed to convince the opposition leader Raila Odinga to meet with President Kibaki.” The violence that has followed the elections has now claimed over 600 lives and displaced 250,000 more, according to BBC News.

BBC reports that Ghanaian president John Kufour, who is also head of the African Union, has met separately with both President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga.  Despite early indications that the parties might meet face-to-face, the New York Times writes that “opposition leaders [are] cooling to the idea of negotiations with the government after the president unilaterally made major cabinet appointments, a move that set off riots across the country almost immediately.”  Kibaki announced that his cabinet would not include any members of Odinga’s Orange Democratic Party, even though it won a majority of seats in Kenya’s Parliament, and that Kalonzo Musyoka, the distant third-place finisher in the presidential election, would serve as vice-president.

The January 8 Globe and Mail writes that CCD Board Member David Kilgour was part of a press conference in Ottawa addressing the situation in Kenya:

“In Canada, David Kilgour, the former Liberal Secretary of State for Africa, and representatives of three pro-democracy groups, praised the Conservative government for its recent contribution of $1-million to the Kenyan Red Cross.  But they said more must be done.

“Mr. Kilgour and the others held a press conference in Ottawa yesterday to urge the government to reject the Kenyan election results, to call for an interim national unity government and to press for a new presidential election that would be observed by the international community following the adoption of a new constitution.  They also want Canada to support an intervention by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action group, a body that deals with serious violations of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political values.

“The Kenyan ‘people think so highly of Canada and if we take the position that there has got to be another election soon, and the constitution has to be sorted out … then I think we will be taken very seriously on that,’ Mr. Kilgour said.”

In the full press release issued by the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, Kilgour added, “We and our government should stand with Kenya's people in their time of trial just as we did with Ukrainians after their flawed presidential election in 2004.”

References:

BBC News: New effort to solve Kenya crisis

Voice of America: Kenyan Opposition Leader Rejects Bilateral Talks With President Kibaki

New York Times: Kenya Crisis Worsens as Opposition Cools to Talks

Press Release: Canadians urge Harper Government to push for restoration of democracy in Kenya

www.ccd21.org