Kenya peace process hangs in balance

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Kenya's rival politicians appealed for calm Thursday as a monthlong deadlock over the country's power-sharing agreement sparked violent protests and police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.

President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga agreed to share power in February after weeks of deadly violence following the country's disputed presidential election on Dec. 27.

But the men have not yet worked out how to implement the accord, with both sides trying to secure the most powerful positions in a new Cabinet.

"I'd like to appeal to our people not to engage in acts of hooliganism or thuggery that would cause unnecessary destruction of property and lives," Odinga said.

Odinga suspended talks with President Mwai Kibaki on Tuesday, saying Kibaki must first dissolve the current Cabinet and share the posts equally.

Scuffles broke out for a third day Thursday in Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums. Kibera was the scene of some of the worst postelection violence in January and February, which killed more than 1,000 people and displaced some 300,000 across the country of 36 million.

"The government strongly condemns the violence," government spokesman Alfred Mutua said. "We should all embrace nonviolent manners of expressing our desires."

International pressure on the two sides was growing.

"Both parties cannot govern by themselves. The accord was a solution for a political crisis and therefore requires them to govern together as equal partners," said Nasser Ega-Musa, spokesman for the mediation team that former U.N. chief Kofi Annan led and that brokered the power sharing deal.

In a statement Thursday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier urged Kibaki and Odinga "to proceed in good faith" to implement their power sharing deal.

On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger said Kenya's relationship with the United States depended on quick implementation of the power-sharing accord, which lawmakers approved last month. E-mail to a friend

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