Rice Raises Pressure on Kenyan Rivals
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NAIROBI, Kenya — Secretary of State Rice ratcheted up pressure on Kenya’s rival politicians to share power and put a disputed presidential election behind them yesterday, holding out American reconstruction aid as an incentive.
On a one-day stop, Ms. Rice was the highest-ranking American official to visit since the flawed December 27 ballot unleashed weeks of bloodshed. The violence has killed more than 1,000 people and tarnished the image of Kenya, an American ally in the war on terrorist groups in East Africa.
“I frankly believe that the time for a political settlement was yesterday,” Ms. Rice said after meetings with President Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says Mr. Kibaki stole the election. She also talked with a former U.N. chief, Kofi Annan, who is mediating peace talks.
Earlier in the day, Ms. Rice said she would “emphasize that there is a lot to be gained in a relationship with the United States through resolution of this political crisis.”
She said Washington was ready to help rebuild destroyed homes and resettle Kenyans who have had to flee violence — but only once there was a deal to end the crisis.
“I want to be very clear: The current stalemate and the circumstances are not going to permit business as usual with the United States,” Ms. Rice said.
The election, which foreign and local observers say was rigged, returned Mr. Kibaki to power for a second five-year term after Mr. Odinga’s lead in early vote counting evaporated overnight. The controversy has stirred up ethnic grievances that have bedeviled Kenya since its independence in 1963. Much of the fighting has pitted other ethnic groups against Mr. Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe, long resented for dominating politics and business. The violence at the hands of thugs armed with poisoned arrows and machetes has been shockingly brutal in a country once considered among the most stable in Africa.
Washington and others have been pressing Kenya’s rivals for weeks to strike a power-sharing deal to end the turmoil, and Ms. Rice repeated those demands.
“They need to share power and share responsibility for the governing of this country,” she said. Over the weekend, the top State Department official for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, warned that Washington was considering targeted sanctions against anyone who stood in the way of a power-sharing deal.
