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January 4, 2008 Nairobi showdown looms
By Staff reporters and Agencies
As Nairobi erupted today (Thursday) with police attacking protesters massing
for a banned opposition rally, the alarm was sounded in Cape Town at the
impact of the crisis on South African tourism.
Kenyan police used teargas and water cannon on crowds gathering for the
protest called by opposition leader Raila Odinga.
This morning (Thursday) the British High Commission released a statement
advising people to avoid travelling to Kenya at present and Cape Town
Tourism chief executive Mariette du Toit-Helmbold said tourism officials
were watching the situation closely.
"Kenya is one of South Africa's most important source markets, with a lot of
tourists travelling on from Kenya to South Africa, and vice versa," she
said.
Kenya, renowned for its safari tourism, was the second-most popular tourist
destination in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa and tourists often
planned their visits to include both countries.
Du Toit-Helmbold's comments came as police in Nairobi lobbed teargas at
hundreds of chanting anti-government protesters sitting on a Nairobi
highway, blocking a major intersection, before the rally later today at the
city's Uhuru Park.
With the death toll from post-election violence put at 341 early today,
international efforts to mediate have been stepped up.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was phoning President Mwai Kibaki and
Odinga to urge them to "do everything they possibly can in the name of
political reconciliation" to end the violence, said State Department
spokesperson Sean McCormack in Washington.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has arrived in Nairobi and was due to meet
the head of Kenya's electoral commission.
Ghanaian President John Kufuor was waiting to talk to Kibaki before deciding
whether to visit Nairobi himself or send a team.
Both sides have traded accusations of ethnic cleansing in a week of bloody
violence that has choked off supplies of fuel and other goods to a swath of
central Africa.
Among the victims was Lucas Sang, a member of the Kenyan 4x400m relay
quartet at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, who had been hacked to death in
his home town of Eldoret on Tuesday, a colleague said.
Sang, who retired to farming after quitting the track, was killed as he
walked home in this western Kenyan town where more than 35 people were
burned alive inside a church on the same day.
It is reported that sexual violence against women has soared.
"Since the post-election violence started, we have seen an upsurge in terms
of the number of gang rapes," said Sam Thenya, head of the Nairobi Women's
Hospital.
A total of 19 women victims of sexual assault had come to the hospital,
which offers free consultations to rape victims, over the past 24 hours.
"They told us their stories. Some were gang-raped and sodomised in front of
their families," Thenya said.
With international mediation efforts intensifying, the Kibaki government has
indicated that while it is open to dialogue, it insists the crisis does not
require intervention
"President Kibaki is ready to speak to anyone and at any time," government
spokesperson Alfred Mutua said in a statement.
"However, it should be noted that Kenya is not at war and does not need
mediators or peacekeepers. Dialogue is open with anyone, but the talk is not
mediation or ceasefire."
Calling Kibaki a "thief" who had carried out "a civilian coup", Odinga told
reporters he would, however, accept international mediation and proposed
setting up an interim power-sharing government to prepare for a re-run of
the vote.
"It should last no more than three months," he said.
"The people will not take this vote-rigging by the government lying down."
Unrest continued this morning (Thursday) prior to the planned opposition
rally.
About 100 riot police faced the protesters, who had marched from the vast
Kibera slum to about a kilometre from Nairobi's city centre.
In its advisory urging people not to travel to Kenya, the British High
Commission in South Africa said its officials would "continue to monitor the
situation and this travel advice will be updated at regular intervals".
"We are working closely with the Kenyan authorities and are in touch with
British nationals across the country."
Home Affairs spokesperson Jacky Mashapu said he was not in a position to
speculate and declined to comment on how the situation in Kenya could affect
South Africa.
However, the crisis in the economically important east African country is
being watched with anxiety in business circles.
Barbara Court of African Sources, which is engaged in business throughout
Africa, said she usually stopped in Kenya in transit to most African
destinations.
She commented that it seemed the "knock-on effect" was already "starting to
bite".
"Uganda is short of fuel already. Rwanda and the other landlocked countries
get all their stuff from Mombasa or Dar-es-Salaam. I hope they will get it
sorted out soon."
Kenya is South Africa's largest trading partner on the continent outside of
the SADC region.
According to a government website, South African exports to Kenya amount to
almost R3-billion a year. Imports from Kenya totalled R203-million in 2005.
At least 30 South African companies and businesses have a presence in Kenya,
and South Africa is also the country's largest foreign direct investor.
Kenya Airways said this morning that flights to and from South Africa were
not affected by the unrest.
Two flights were expected to arrive at and depart from O R Tambo Airport in
Johannesburg today (Thursday).
* This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Argus on
January 03, 2008 |
