British PM Calls For Kenya Talks, End Of Violence

Wednesday, 2 January 2008, 9:15 am
Press Release: UK Government
Gordon Brown Calls For Kenya Talks, End Violence
PM calls for Kenya talks1 January 2008

Gordon Brown has called upon political leaders in Kenya to settle their differences over the country's election result and help quell the violence of recent days.

Speaking to reporters on a visit to a Berkshire hospital, the PM said that rival leaders Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga should look at ways of sharing power and that "the violence must be brought to an end" on Kenya's streets. As many as 200 people are reported to have died in clashes, feared to be taking on an ethnic dimension, since results were announced on Sunday.

President Kibaki was declared the winner only after unusual delyas and apparent irregularities in the counting process. The EU, which has election monitors in Kenya, has said that the vote was "marred by a lack of transparency" while chief monitor Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said the count "lacked credibility".