Kenya's Raila Odinga is I. Coast mediator

  1. Posted on Tuesday 28 December 2010 - 08:02
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    Nangayi Guyson, AfricaNews reporter in Kampala, Uganda
    The African Union which suspended Ivory Coast on December 6 because of embattled Laurent Gbagbo refusal to stand down, has asked Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga to lead its efforts in resolving the political crisis in Ivory Coast, a statement said Monday.
    Raila_Odinga_Evans
    The African Union which suspended Ivory Coast on December 6 because of embattled Laurent Gbagbo refusal to stand down, has asked Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga to lead its efforts in resolving the political crisis in Ivory Coast, a statement said Monday.

    The AU Commission chief Jean Ping said he had asked Odinga to "lead the monitoring of the situation in Ivory Coast and bolster the efforts being undertaken" to end the turmoil.

    Odinga, who was named Kenya's prime minister in 2008 in a coalition government set up to end weeks of political unrest, recently called for the forceful removal of Ivory Coast's Gbagbo, who is tussling with rival Alassane Ouattara over the country's leadership.

    Media reports say the AU's appointment is another setback for Gbagbo, as the East African country leader has been hawkish on the crisis, and was the first African leader to call for military action.

    Odinga has said he planned to talk to Gbagbo, but would wait for the outcome of the Ecowas talks before deciding his next move.

    "[Mr Gbagbo] has of course portrayed himself as a democrat all his life, that's why he lived very many years in France in exile," Odinga told the BBC. "So I think I'm going to try to impress upon him that the time has come for him to lead by example."

    "This, I think, is something that needs to be said and to tell him also that he risks becoming an international pariah if he tries to continue to cling to power. Going by the current trends he will have no friends left any more anyway."

    However, he dismissed the possibility of power-sharing between Gbagbo and Ouattara, saying that the election commission, not the constitutional court, was the only legitimate authority to determine the winner.

    The west African state's electoral body had announced that Ouattara had beaten the incumbent, but Gbagbo rejected the results and had himself sworn in, despite broad international support for his opponent.

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