Kenyan rivals on unity tour to affected areas

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

ELDORET, Kenya (AFP) — Kenya's rival leaders urged ethnic reconciliation during a joint tour Thursday of areas worst affected by the violence that followed their battle over disputed elections.

"We want a permanent solution so as not to see a repeat," Prime Minister Raila Odinga told a crowd gathered in the northwestern Rift Valley town of Eldoret, which saw some of the deadliest ethnic clashes earlier this year.

The region still hosts tens of thousands of people who were displaced by the ethnic violence that stemmed from December 27 presidential polls, which Odinga accused President Mwai Kibaki of stealing.

Under a power-sharing agreement brokered by former UN chief Kofi Annan, Kibaki retained the presidency while Odinga was given the post of prime minister...