Annan Set for Kenyan Crisis Talks

21 Jan 2008 CNN

Riot police patrol the streets of Nairobi.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetang'ula said hopes were high that former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan can start a dialogue to help resolve Kenya's political crisis. "I am… optimistic, I have no doubt that we are going to talk and we are going to yield positive outcome form the talks." Wetang'ula pointed out that only Kenya's courts can decide if President Mwai Kibaki's government is legitimate. Annan, is expected to arrive in Nairobi 22 Jan.

Kenyan media reported Sunday that marauding youths armed with spears, bows and arrows and machetes were destroying homes around the town of Eldoret, near the border with Uganda. The local district commissioner Abdi Halake, said that six people were killed and 50 houses were burned to the ground in the weekend violence. The Rift Valley town of Eldoret has been the scene of much of the post-election violence, which has resulted in at hundreds of deaths and driven thousands from their homes.