Annan cools hopes of Kenya peace deal

Reports of a peace deal between Kenya’s rival political factions were described as premature by former UN head Kofi Annan today.

Mr Annan, who is mediating talks between President Mwai Kibaki and main opponent Raila Odinga said it was too soon to announce a power-sharing agreement aimed at ending weeks of bloodshed.

“I sincerely hope … we will complete our work by early next week,” he said. But a statement by an opposition MP that a deal had been reached “was jumping the gun,” he added.

``We are making progress,'' Mr Annan said.

“We are all agreed that a political settlement is needed, a political settlement is necessary, and we are now in the process of discussing the details, working out the terms of the settlement. So you will have to be a little patient,” he said.

More than 1,000 people have been killed and 300,000 driven from their homes in fighting since the disputed December 27 presidential election sparked violence that has often pitted many of the country’s myriad ethnic groups against one another.

While a power sharing deal would be expected to result in less violence, some opposition supporters insisted they would not back down until Mr Odinga was named president.

“We won, we can’t agree. We want our rights, we will go back to the streets,” said Evans Omogi, a driver in the western city of Kisumu, the scene of much of the worst violence.

In Mathare, a slum in Nairobi that was the site of repeated clashes, one Odinga supporter called the reported deal a “betrayal.”

Mr Odinga is “going to govern but what about the people? What about his supporters?” said Cliff Owino. “That is betrayal. People will be angered.”

Meanwhile today around 5,000 people fled a makeshift camp for those displaced by the violence in the western town of Kericho, fearing trouble ahead of tomorrow’s funeral for an opposition MP killed last week. Only about 1,000 people were left in the camp, said Red Cross official Susan Onyango.

Kericho’s main street was packed with families hastily piling furniture on to government lorries provided to take them to areas where their ethnic group was predominant.

The MP was killed in what the opposition described as a political assassination, but what police said was a crime of passion by a traffic policeman who believed his girlfriend was involved with the politician. The killing had sparked attacks on the policeman’s ethnic group, the Kisii.