GNA Goofs!

Accra, Jan. 11, GNA - The Ghana News Agency goofed when it reported that there was a face to face meeting at the Kenyan Parliament House between President Mwai Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga, Leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), on Thursday.

The meeting, which was set to begin before the GNA Correspondent left to catch a flight to Ghana, was aborted in the nick of time. (read: Kufuor Clinches Deal In Kenya)

Notwithstanding, the Chairman of the African Union, President John Agyekum Kufuor succeeded to get the two parties to accept a number of proposals.

Speaking at the Castle, Osu on Friday after Busumuru Kofi Annan, Former Secretary General of United Nations, had formally accepted the invitation from him to head an African Union (UN) Panel to continue with negotiations, President Kufuor said he went to Kenya with a limited agenda. President Kufuor said he went there with a programme, to get them to agree to immediate cessation of violence; to accept to use dialogue to settle their differences and to agree to talk under the aegis of Panel of Eminent African personalities.

President Kufuor, whose visit to Kenya was at the invitation of the two feuding parties, said during the two days he won the support of both the Government and the opposition parties to abide by these.

He said political negotiations took time and that it was simply impossible to have solved the crisis within the short period of his visit. Responding to a question as to whether there was any lesson Ghana could take from the Kenyan experience, he said the country had already known the implication of mishandled elections, citing the parliamentary election boycott in 1992, by the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

President Kufuor said institutions of state in the Continent must manage themselves in a way that might not spark off violence.

Kenya, which used to be a model of stability in Africa, was thrown into chaos following the December 27, disputed presidential election that handed power back to President Kibaki.

Accra, Jan. 11, GNA - The Ghana News Agency goofed when it reported that there was a face to face meeting at the Kenyan Parliament House between President Mwai Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga, Leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), on Thursday.

The meeting, which was set to begin before the GNA Correspondent left to catch a flight to Ghana, was aborted in the nick of time. (read: Kufuor Clinches Deal In Kenya)

Notwithstanding, the Chairman of the African Union, President John Agyekum Kufuor succeeded to get the two parties to accept a number of proposals.

Speaking at the Castle, Osu on Friday after Busumuru Kofi Annan, Former Secretary General of United Nations, had formally accepted the invitation from him to head an African Union (UN) Panel to continue with negotiations, President Kufuor said he went to Kenya with a limited agenda. President Kufuor said he went there with a programme, to get them to agree to immediate cessation of violence; to accept to use dialogue to settle their differences and to agree to talk under the aegis of Panel of Eminent African personalities.

President Kufuor, whose visit to Kenya was at the invitation of the two feuding parties, said during the two days he won the support of both the Government and the opposition parties to abide by these.

He said political negotiations took time and that it was simply impossible to have solved the crisis within the short period of his visit. Responding to a question as to whether there was any lesson Ghana could take from the Kenyan experience, he said the country had already known the implication of mishandled elections, citing the parliamentary election boycott in 1992, by the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

President Kufuor said institutions of state in the Continent must manage themselves in a way that might not spark off violence.

Kenya, which used to be a model of stability in Africa, was thrown into chaos following the December 27, disputed presidential election that handed power back to President Kibaki.