Tutu 'Hopeful' About Kenya Mediation

Opposition calls for new election as condemnation grows

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 4, 2008 8:35 AM CST

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Tutu 'Hopeful' About Kenya Mediation — Police officers, one of them in plainclothes, walk past destroyed buildings in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya, Friday, Jan. 4, 2008. Kenya's opposition party called for a new presidential election to settle a dispute over the vote that has sparked days of deadly riots, while small groups of protesters... (Associated Press)

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has said he is open to the possibility of a coalition government—if the opposition consents to his terms, Reuters reports. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said after a meeting with Kibaki that "there is a great deal of hope" in ongoing talks and that both sides appear willing to negotiate.

The opposition, which called off a protest rally today, is demanding a rerun of the controversial December 27 election that plunged the nation into ethnic violence. Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga haven't spoken since the race, which international observers have criticized as flawed. "Were the elections rigged or not? I think so, the Americans think so, the British think so," said France's foreign minister. (More Kenya stories.)

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