President May Share Power in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan government negotiator said yesterday the president's party was considering sharing power with the opposition, the first acknowledgment from the government side that such a proposal was on the table.

The international community has been pressing for a power-sharing agreement in hopes that it will end the presidential election-related violence that has killed more than 1,000 in the East African country. Up to 600,000 people have been displaced, a top U.N. official said yesterday.

"The talks from today on will be a hardball," said Mutula Kilonzo, one of the negotiators on behalf of President Kibaki, as discussions resumed between the government and the opposition.

"We are talking about the modalities of a political settlement, which can come in different forms. One of them is sharing government; another one is to reform the constitution to create a strong opposition and a capable government."

Much of the violence since December 27 has pitted members of ethnic groups against one another. The turmoil has also gutted the economy of the country, once seen as a model for economic stability and democracy in Africa.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said yesterday that up to 600,000 people have been displaced in the violence.

"There are something like 300,000 people displaced in camps ... [and] beyond those 300,000 there are probably just as many who are not in camps who have gone back to their homelands ... or are sheltering with friends and neighbors somewhere else," Mr. Holmes told reporters in Helsinki after arriving from a visit to Kenya.

Mr. Holmes said many classified as living in camps were staying "in many cases, simply in police stations or prisons or churches or other government buildings taken over temporarily as places of shelter by people forced from their homes."

Mr. Holmes said the displaced were living in 300 camps nationwide — too many for aid groups and the government to be able to upkeep and provide sufficient help.

A former U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, who is mediating the talks, said Friday before a weekend break that the two sides had made significant progress toward striking a deal to share power.

Also Friday, an opposition lawmaker on the negotiating team that the two sides had agreed to a power-sharing government. Mr. Annan called that "premature" but said significant progress had been made.

Opposition negotiators could not immediately be reached for comment yesterday.

Mr. Kibaki presided over the launch of a program to provide free nationwide secondary schooling yesterday in Nairobi without mentioning the turmoil, except to decry the looting and burning of homes that has marked recent violence.