Enact New Constitution Promptly, Annan Advices Kenya

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged the Kenyan government to enact a new constitution alongside electoral and judicial reforms within the next 18 months.

This would prevent the recurrence of the political violence that engulfed the country after disputed elections in 2007, Annan said in an emailed statement.

Annan arrived in Nairobi Sunday to assess progress made in the implementation of an agreement signed between Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki and his bitter challenger in the 2007 elections, now Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The former UN chief mediated talks that yielded a coalition government headed by the two principals, after a dispute over the results of the December 2007 presidential contest ignited violence that claimed over 1,500 lives and displaced over 300,000 people from their homes. [ES]