Cablegate: Kenya's Electoral Crisis - Kofi Annan's February

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UNCLAS NAIROBI 000547

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM KE
SUBJECT: KENYA'S ELECTORAL CRISIS - KOFI ANNAN'S FEBRUARY
25 PRESS STATEMENT

1. On February 25, Kofi Annan issued the following press
statement after meeting with both Orange Democratic
Movement leader Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki.

Begin Text.

KENYA NATIONAL DIALOGUE AND RECONCILIATION

Press Statement

By Kofi Annan

After four hours of intense negotiations this morning, the
negotiating team made almost no progress toward reaching an
agreement on governance, despite the fact that they were
give the entire weekend to consult on their positions.

I had to conclude that they were not capable of resolving
the outstanding issues.

I therefore suspended the afternoon session in order to
confer directly with their leaders. I met first with the
Honorable Raila Odinga at the Serena Hotel and then with
President Kibaki at State House.

With these leaders, I shared the issues in contention and
urged them to resolve their differences so that we could
complete our work on Agenda Item Three, How to Resolve the
Political Crisis, confident that they understood the crisis
that the nation is in and the impatient desire of the
people of Kenya to see a final resolution to the conflict.

I believe that the Panel of Eminent African Personalities,
working with the Kenya National Dialogue and
Reconciliation, had done its work. I am now asking the
Party Leaders, the Honorable Raila Odinga of the Orange
Democratic Movement and President Mwai Kibaki of the
Government/Party of National Unity to do theirs.

End Text.
RANNEBERGER

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