PEACE & SECURITY | Creating a more stable world
18 February 2008
Kenya Crisis Needs To End Soon, Rice Says
Secretary holds talks in Nairobi, offers U.S. help
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania –- The situation in Kenya is a "crisis and a crisis that needs to end soon," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says following daylong talks there with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, political opposition leader Raila Odinga and other concerned parties. Violence following the deeply flawed December 27, 2007, presidential election has resulted in hundreds dead and thousands displaced from their homes.
Answering questions from reporters in Nairobi, Kenya, February 18, Rice outlined four items to which former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the feuding political parties have agreed in a framework.
First and foremost, there must be a total renunciation of violence and a refusal to return to violence, the secretary said, calling that step "the most important plank of any platform to move forward."
Second, there needs to be agreement that the parties are going to allow an "electoral truth" to be found, which she said "means that a commission that can look into what happened in the Kenyan election." December 27, 2007, "clearly was not a good day for Kenyan democracy," she said.
"Kenyans obviously tried to exercise their democratic rights and we congratulate them on having done so," but "there does need to be an understanding and an accounting on what happened in the elections," she said.
Third, Rice said there needs to be a "way to govern Kenya now," and that "is going to require political compromise on the part of the major parties so Kenya can move forward."
Finally, she stressed, "there needs to be -- as there was supposed to have been over the last several years -- constitutional reform, electoral reform, and a number of other reforms that really need to be made so that this country has a firm foundation for democracy moving forward."
"Sometimes in democracies, there are crises," she said, but the key "is to use any crisis as an opportunity to put the country on a firmer footing."
Rice said she has spoken with civil society representatives, the business community and the press, which she said has been supportive of a return to democracy.
President Bush dispatched Rice to Kenya from Tanzania as they were both traveling through Africa on his five-nation trip.
Asked what the United States could do to help bring about a power-sharing arrangement in Kenya, Rice said, "I frankly believe that the time for political settlement is yesterday. It is really important that this be done and done urgently."
She quickly acknowledged, though, that "not everything can be done very quickly; obviously some of the reforms are going to take some time. That is good," she said, "but Kenyans, I sense, need to believe that this country is moving forward and not locked in a political stalemate."
Rice said the United States is prepared to support civil society to "make certain there is accountability as constitutional and other reforms go farther. There is no greater accountability for democratically elected leaders" she offered, "than to have a civil society that is strong and mature and able to keep check on what is going on, and so we have been supportive of civil society and are prepared to do more."
The United States remains "very concerned about displaced people and the need to take care of people who have been displaced from their homes," the secretary said.
She reminded everyone that the United States has already provided humanitarian assistance and is prepared to do more for resettlement of people, for rehabilitation and for reconstruction of infrastructure and other necessities.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided more than $4.7 million for emergency humanitarian assistance since January 3.
"These are the kinds of things that the United States, in conjunction with the international community, could do for a government that is moving forward," she said.
