AP wameripoti Kibaki kaktaa uchaguzi kufanyika tena
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/national/213231/
KISUMU, Kenya - President Mwai Kibaki rejected demands Wednesday for a new election or vote recount while addressing countrymen who had to flee blazing homes and rampaging mobs armed with machetes and arrows in Kenya's seething political turmoil.
Continuing violence, set off by opposition claims that Kibaki stole the Dec. 27 presidential election, caused a new exodus of refugees, and little sign appeared of softening by the president or his chief rival, Raila Odinga.
More than 500 people have died in violence that in some areas pits other tribes against Kibaki's Kikuyu, the dominant people in politics and business in the East African nation of Kenya.
The vote "is finished, and anybody who thinks they can turn it around should know that it's not possible and it will never be possible," Kibaki told a crowd in the western town of Burnt Forest on his first trip to a trouble spot since bloodshed started two days after the disputed ballot.
Speaking in Swahili, he delivered a much sharper tone than in his official statements to the press, in which he focused on dialogue and harmony. He repeated his call for the top court to settle any allegations of election fixing. Kenya's high court is filled with Kibaki appointees.
Kibaki urged the thousands of refugees camped at a school in Burnt Forest not to abandon their land.
"Do not be afraid. The government will protect you," he said. "Nobody is going to be chased from where they live." But that already has happened to an estimated 255, 000 Kenyans.
On Wednesday women with suitcases on their heads, frightened children grabbing at their skirts, searched for transport to get away from Kisumu, the main western town where Odinga has strong support and those seen as government supporters have been attacked.
On the road to Nairobi, the capital, dozens of angry youths brandishing sticks burned tires to block the route. "If elections fail, violence prevails !" they shouted.
People lined up in the poorest Nairobi slums to wait for food aid because violence has cut off regular supplies of food and water. Hundreds gathered in the Kibera slum turned rowdy as volunteers tried to hand out food, and several men stole sacks of corn flour.
"There are some boys there taking all the food," said Eunice Ochien, 21, who was pushed out of line. "It isn't fair." The election dispute has brought chaos to a country long considered one of Africa's most stable democracies.
The chairman of the African Union, Ghanian President John Kufuor, was in Kenya trying to mediate a settlement with support from the U. S. and Britain. But nothing clearly showed any progress in easing the anger and distrust dividing Kibaki and Odinga.
Some indications appeared Wednesday that Kibaki hoped to resolve the crisis through direct talks with the opposition. After Kibaki met with the African Union envoy, the government issued a statement that Kibaki "assured President Kufuor that he had already initiated a process of dialogue with other Kenyan leaders." The opposition, however, insists it will not negotiate without African Union mediation.
According to a Kenyan government Web site, Kibaki won 4, 584, 721 votes, or about 47 percent, and Odinga got 4, 352, 993, or about 44 percent.
Information for this article was contributed from Nairobi by Michelle Faul, Elizabeth A. Kennedy and M alkhadir M. Muhumed and from Burnt Forest by Todd Pitman of The Associated Press.
