News story (by Lucas Barasa) - Mediation talks resume Tuesday

Ref: http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=119209

Story by LUCAS BARASA
Publication Date: 3/17/2008

Mediation talks to find a lasting solution to the problems facing the country resume Tuesday after a four-day break.

Government negotiator Mutula Kilonzo said the team will discuss poverty, youth empowerment and institutional reforms, among other things.

Co-chair Oluyemi Adeniji, Mr Kilonzo said, was expected back in the country Sunday after a visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to brief the African Union on the progress of the talks.

The AU initiated and is sponsoring the National Dialogue and Reconciliation.

Sabatia MP Musalia Mudavadi, who leads ODM negotiators at the talks with the Government coalition, has been chairing the sessions in the absence of Mr Adeniji and chief mediator Kofi Annan.

A team formed to investigate all aspects of last year’s disputed general election is also expected to be sworn in Monday or Tuesday.

Sworn in

Mr Kilonzo said the team, comprising local and international experts, is to be sworn in before Parliament passes crucial Bills to firm up an agreement reached between President Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga.

The Bills have been lined up for second and third reading Tuesday.

The review team is headed by a South African judge Johann Kriegler. Other members are Tanzanian Lady Justice Imani Daudi Aboud, Prof Marangu M’Marete, Mr Francis Angila Away, Ms Catherine Muyeka Mumma and Mr Horacio Boneo (an Argentine).

The team is expected to present its report to the Annan team within three months.

Electoral Commission of Kenya officials are among those listed to face the public hearing.

On Sunday, Mr Kilonzo appealed to the Government to subsidise the cost of farm inputs and fertiliser to enable internally displaced people return to their farms and continue with their lives.

He said a bag of fertiliser, which sold at Sh1600 last year, was now trading at Sh4,000.