Kenya Prez: 'I'm Ready to Talk'

Clashes force opposition to move rally to tomorrow
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 3, 2008 2:48 PM CST
Kenya Prez: 'I'm Ready to Talk'
Supporters of the opposition leader Raila Odinga are seen at a rally venue in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2007. Opposition leader Raila Odinga had called a "million man" march to protest President Mwai Kibaki's re-election in the Dec. 27 vote, insisting the poll was rigged. But the hundreds of...   (Associated Press)

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said today he's ready for talks with political opponents "once the nation is calm," Reuters reports. After three days of rioting and burning slums, in the wake of a hotly contested election, opposition leader Raila Odinga postponed until tomorrow a rally scheduled for a Nairobi park today. Odinga remained combative, accusing Kibaki allies of "genocide."

Attorney General Amos Wako called for an “independent person or body” to re-check the controversial vote tally, saying "such an exercise will … assuage the inflamed passions of people." Critics charge that Kenya typically blunts the results of such independent commissions—a sentiment echoed by Odinga’s spokesman, who responded to Wako’s proposal by saying he had "no faith in any government institution." (More Kenya stories.)

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