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BYLINE:
Bogonko Bosire
DATELINE:
NAIROBI, Feb 2 2008
BODY:
Kenyan police on Saturday scoured villages
in the volatile western region to recover
stolen weapons as turmoil raged after unrest
claimed some 1,000 lives since December's
disputed elections, officials said.
Thousands of villages in Ainamoi area near
the western flashpoint Kericho town on
Friday razed a government office, killed a
policeman and stole weapons from a local
armoury. The villagers were protesting the
killing of an an opposition lawmaker.
"It is an operation aimed at recovering the
guns and any other security apparatus stolen
by the hooligans. The operation will not be
stopped until the guns are found," a police
commander told AFP.
The incident occurred shortly before the
parties of President Mwai Kibaki and
opposition leader Raila Odinga agreed a
joint roadmap to end the Kenyan crisis that
has displaced nearly 300,000 people.
"The Kenyan dialogue and reconciliation has
started, we are off to a good start ... We
are going to push as hard as we can to get
results," former UN chief Kofi Annan said
after talks with both sides produced their
first joint agreement since the December 27
elections set off a month of bloodletting.
The agreement came as 10 people, including a
policeman, were killed in clashes in western
Kenya and dozens of houses were burned.
Annan, who has been in Kenya for more than a
week, said the first priority of the
four-point agenda was "immediate action to
stop the violence and restore fundamental
rights and liberties."
Both sides would then address the growing
humanitarian crisis caused by the unrest and
resolve the political crisis created after
Odinga accused Kibaki of having rigged the
election to rob him of the presidency in the
widely-contested polls.
Annan gave a deadline of seven to 15 days
from the start of the dialogue on January 28
to resolve the first three points.
But the document gave little detail of how
the political crisis would be addressed,
saying only that "its resolution may require
adjustments to the current constitutional,
legal and institutional frameworks."
The fourth point concerned long-term issues
such as unemployment, poverty and land
reforms.
The opposition cautiously welcomed the deal.
"Given the very wide differences betweeen
the sides, this is a very important
breakthrough. But it is not an agreement
that will end the crisis," Orange Democratic
Movement (ODM) spokesman Salim Lone told AFP.
The current UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon,
added his weight to diplomatic efforts on a
visit to Nairobi Friday and called for an
end to the cycle of violence.
"The killing must stop. The violence must
end for the sake of the Kenyan people and
for the sake of Kenya," Ban told a news
conference.
Some 1,000 people have died and up to
300,000 have been forced from their homes in
fighting sparked by Kibaki's re-election.
The crisis has severely shaken the formerly
stable east African nation, a refuge for
many people displaced by neighbouring
conflicts.
"You have lost already too much in terms of
national image, in terms of economic
interests," said Ban, who held talks with
the feuding leaders. "What I'd like to ask
you is to look beyond these individual
interests, look beyond the party lines."
Kibaki told African leaders in
Ethiopia that his poll victory
represented "the will" of the Kenyan
majority and blamed the opposition for the
unrest, before returning to Kenya Friday
evening.
US embassy spokesman Thomas Dowling said in
Nairobi that the FBI had offered to probe
the killings this week of two opposition
MPs, Melitus Mugabe Were and David Kimutai
Too.
But the government rejected the offer. "We
are capable of conducting our own murder
investigations," said government spokesman
Alfred Mutua.
Too was shot dead by a policeman on
Thursday. On Friday, a police commander said
that a crowd in his home village bent on
revenge and armed with bows and arrows,
spears, clubs and machetes, had attacked and
killed a policeman.
Fighting in Nyamira district further west
killed eight people and wounded 12, a police
commander told AFP. A ninth person was
killed by police in the western city of
Kisumu.
Odinga said earlier the killings of the MPs
were "part of a plot" to reduce his Orange
Democratic Movement's (ODM) majority in
parliament.
The ODM secured 99 seats in the legislative
elections that coincided with the
presidential poll on December 27, making it
the largest single party but leaving it
short of an overall majority. Kibaki's Party
of National Unity (PNU) won 43 seats.
Members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe suffered
heavily in the first wave of violence at the
hands of Odinga's Luo tribe and other ethnic
groups, but have since carried out numerous
revenge attacks.
Annan said the talks would resume Monday
morning.
LOAD-DATE:
February 2, 2008
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