Odinga Calls Off Protest… Tutu Visits Region

3 January 2008 Time

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Kenyan police and opposition protesters fought running battles across the capital Nairobi as riot police blocked the opposition from holding a mass demonstration in the city center Uhuru Park

The Orange Democratic Movement (O.D.M.) called off plans for tens of thousands of its activists to march to Uhuru Park in the center of Nairobi to "inaugurate" their leader, Raila Odinga, as the "people's president."

Kenya's Attorney General Amos Wako called for an independent investigation into the election.

South African archbishop Desmond Tutu arrived in Nairobi overnight. Tutu's efforts to broker a compromise between the two sides had little immediate success. While he met Odinga, Tutu was unable to make an appointment with Kibaki. Prospects of a resolution are distant, not least because the rivalry between the two leaders is personal. Kibaki and Odinga were once political allies and Odinga backed Kibaki in the 2002 election, in return for a promise that Kibaki would change the constitution to create the position of Prime Minister — which he would then hand over to Odinga. That never happened.