Kenyan PM Returns To Ivory Coast in a Last Attempt To Avoid Military Intervention
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga is to return to Ivory Coast in a renewed attempt to resolve the political standoff in the West African country after the presidential runoff in November, when the two candidates, Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, claimed victory at the same time.
Raila Odinga, a radical in his vision about the way the conflict should be resolved and a supporter of the military option that still lies on the table as soon as the diplomatic measures have been exhausted, returns to Ivory Coast a week after Gbagbo had promised him to lift the military blockade around the hotel where Ouattara was kept as hostage under the care of the U.N. peacekeepers.
Gbagbo ordered the generals, in front of Odinga, to release Ouattara. Odinga found out this never happened as soon as he returned home and could read in the paper that Ouattara was still under siege.
Anyway, little is being said about the mandate Odinga has, except for the fact that he can “set up a proper structure to deal with political impasse.”
Odinga said in a statement that since Africa is going through elections in more than ten states, it is absolutely imperative that the situation in Ivory Coast be dealt with as soon as possible, otherwise the message sent to Africa would be catastrophic, and would mean that it is possible to return to coups in order to seize power, which would be no more or less than the death of democracy in Africa.
Odinga says that as long as Gbagbo is left in power, though he no longer has any legitimacy validated by ballots, he is a “trend setter” for other incumbent presidents who could see him as a model to follow in clinging to power.
That is why the solution, one way or another, to the crisis in Ivory Coast must be presented.
Odinga comes after his country fellow, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, paid an unannounced visit on January 8 to Ivory Coast, where he met both Gbagbo and Ouattara.
Olusegun Obasanjo ruled Nigeria for eight years, and was the one who ensured the first peaceful power transfer in the history of the most populous country in Africa.
These visits are deemed as the last resort for peaceful attempts, and come a week before the meeting on January 17 in the capital of Mali, when the military chiefs of West Africa will debate the possibility of a military intervention meant to oust Gbagbo.
Last week, president-elect Ouattara said he was expecting the legitimate force intervention, reassuring the people that this will not lead to a plunge into a new civil war.
Gbagbo, in his turn, replied that Ivorian people would not accept military presence on their territory and that the nation would defend it.
Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg.com, Ivory Coast missed a $29 million interest on Eurobonds, and has 30-day grace period to pay.
