Kenyan Rivals Take Dispute to Parliament

[January 15, 2008]  NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Kenya's parliament opened Tuesday for its first session since a disputed presidential election, a fight that has provoked widespread violence and was expected to carry over to the selection of a house speaker.

President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga both arrived to be sworn in as legislators. It was the first time the two have been in the same room since Odinga accused Kibaki of rigging his re-election in the Dec. 27 vote.

Soldiers were deployed around the building, and some roads in the area were blocked off. Riot police were stationed along nearby thoroughfares.

Opposition and government members of parliament greeted each other and chatted amicably before the session began, then both sides stood and applauded when Odinga walked in. But Kibaki's reception was cold; Odinga and his supporters remained seated, not clapping as the president arrived.

Odinga's party spokesman, Ahmed Hashi, said that attending the parliament session convened by the president "does not mean recognizing the presidency of Kibaki."

Neither party has the two-thirds majority needed to elect the speaker, and both sides have been courting legislators from minority parties in hopes of winning support. Independent Kenyan analysts have warned that both parties might be trying to bribe parliament members to secure votes.

Odinga's party has 99 seats in the 222-seat legislature, compared with Kibaki's 43.

Voting for the new speaker got off to a slow start after Odinga supporters argued the ballots should not be secret, as it has traditionally been. Kibaki supporters and the parliament's clerk called for it to be secret.

"We went into (the presidential) election with secret ballots and you stole it," said William Rutu, a top opposition party official.

Odinga's party is backing Kenneth Marende for speaker, while Kibaki is backing Francis ole Kaparo, who held the post until parliament was dissolved last year.

A week of violence in the wake of the vote killed at least 612 people and displaced hundreds of thousands, according to a government commission.

The crisis has severely affected the country's billion dollar tourist industry, emptying hotels and weakening the shilling, which was down to 67 to the dollar from 62 to the dollar earlier this month.

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was expected in Nairobi on Tuesday night, after mediation by the United States and African Union failed last week to bring Kibaki and Odinga together for talks.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry welcomed the visit, saying it was meant "to facilitate dialogue between political leaders in the search for a lasting solution."

The statement contradicted comments Monday by Public Works Minister John Michuki, a member of Kibaki's inner circle, who said Annan had not been invited.

In Geneva, Annan appealed for calm before his departure and alluded to the proposed protests. "Pending this (mediation), no party should ... engage in acts that complicate the search for a negotiated solution," he said. "The purpose of our mission is to help the Kenyan people find a peaceful and just solution to the current crisis."

In an effort to step up pressure on Kibaki, Odinga has called for three days of protests across the country to start Wednesday in 41 locations nationwide, in defiance of a government ban on demonstrations. Similar protests earlier this month shut down Nairobi and homes in the city's packed slums were set ablaze by rival ethnic groups.

Louis Michel, the European Union's Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, called on all parties to "stop immediately the violence and to engage immediately and seriously in talks."

Michel said in a statement the EU had earmarked $8 million in emergency humanitarian aid for victims of the violence. But he said the EU may consider cutting long-term development aid to Kenya -- about $570 million over the next five years.

"It's difficult to continue the same level of budgetary support if we see that the election has not been fully respected," Michel told the European Parliament's Development Committee late Monday in Strasbourg, France.

On Tuesday, the U.N. World Food Program distributed food supplies, some from the government, to around 12,000 people from Nairobi's Kibera slum. Agency spokesman Peter Smerdon told AP Television News it was the second distribution to the slums in a week.

"The slums of Nairobi have been particularly hit by the recent violence and are running short of food so there needs to be food distributions now," Smerdon said.

[Associated Press; By MICHELLE FAUL]

Associated Press Writers Malkhadir M. Muhumed, Tom Odula, Todd Pitman, Katy Pownall and Jan Sliva in Brussels contributed to this report.

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