Fear of Worse Chaos as Opposition Calls for More Protests

Failure of the African Union to bring together the two sides in Kenya’s post-election crisis has prompted the opposition to call countrywide protests in a bid to unseat President Mwai Kibaki.

AU chairman, President John Kufuor of Ghana, left the country Thursday after his two-day diplomacy failed to bring President Kibaki and Opposition leader Raila Odinga to the negotiating table. Kufuor said the two rivals would now work with a team of eminent persons led by former UN chief, Kofi Annan.

The Orange Democratic Movement said the talks had collapsed and made public a negotiation document which the party said Kibaki had refused to sign. But the government denied knowledge of the proposed deal.

On Friday, ODM announced “immediate resumption of nationwide mass action against the irregular presidential results," Reuters quoted spokesman Tony Gachoka as saying. The protests start Wednesday.

But the government said it will not allow more protests. "Dialogue is not engaged in the streets. Dialogue suggests that people resolve their differences peacefully, over a table, not through destroying property and killing innocent Kenyans," Local Government Minister Uhuru Kenyatta told reporters.

Kibaki was controversially declared winner of the Dec. 27 election which the opposition and international observers say was riddled with irregularities. Post-election violence has claimed 486 lives and displaced 250, 000.

Though calm has returned to the country, the situation remains tense, especially in Western, Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces.

Despite the controversy, President Kibaki moved to consolidate his power by naming part of his cabinet, which was sworn in on Thursday. Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka - who came a distant third in the presidential race - is the new vice-president.