President Kufuor has dismissed [international] media reports that he failed in his peace brokering mission to Kenya.
President Kufuor returned from Kenya on Thursday night after two days of efforts to help restore peace to a hitherto peaceful country shattered by electoral violence.
Media reports had suggested his bid to bring the feuding factions; the ruling party and main opposition; to dialogue and end the chaos that attended the final moments of the election process broke down without any success.
However in a sharp rebuttal at the Castle, Osu on Friday, where he held a press briefing, President Kufuor told journalists that he had a clear set of objectives which he set out to achieve in his peace efforts in Kenya. He had gone to Kenya at the invitation of President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga.
“I went with a programme. The idea was to get the two sides to agree to cessation of hostilities because the violence that had raged had taken over 400 lives. The other aim of my visit was also to get the two sides to sit and use dialogue to try and settle their differences. I had the idea, that since I couldn’t be there for more than two days, I would also urge the two sides to accept to talk under the aegis of a panel of eminent Africans. These were the aims with which I visited Kenya.”
President Kufuor announced that one of the major achievements of his mission in the disputed Kenyan elections is getting the Kenyan Government and opposition to agree to dialogue under the auspices of the Former UN Chief Kofi Annan will lead the team of eminent Africans to the talks.
Kofi Annan has accepted the assignment and has assured President Kufuor of his personal and the team’s commitment to the task.
Both President Kufuor and Mr. Annan said it would be difficult to put a time frame for the completion of their work, but will ensure that some agreement is reached by both the Kenyan government and the opposition.
