US: Feuding Kenyan leaders need to talk

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Kenya on Tuesday called on the country’s two top leaders to work together to resolve a dispute that could threaten a power-sharing deal that helped end postelection violence two years ago.

A public dispute between the president and prime minister over how to tackle high-level corruption and the powers each of them has under the Constitution has deepened divisions within the coalition government formed to end the slaughter of more than 1,000 people between December 2007 and February 2008.

“We are calling on the two coalition principals to work together to resolve these issues and to jointly fight corruption, corruption at all levels,” Ambassador Michael Ranneberger said at a news conference.

Ranneberger told journalists that the “highest levels of the U.S. government” are watching events in Kenya “very closely.”

The ambassador said Kenya can effectively fight corruption only if the fractious governing coalition works together.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said he had suspended two Cabinet ministers after audits into the works of their ministries uncovered high-level corruption. Hours later, President Mwai Kibaki annulled those suspensions, arguing that Odinga had acted illegally.

Odinga on Monday called for former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to mediate the disagreement between him and Kibaki. Annan mediated the power sharing deal Odinga and Kibaki signed after the president was controversially declared winner of the December 2007 poll.

These actions have precipitated a debate about the constitutional powers of the premier, but they have also sparked a public debate on how high-level corruption in Kenya should be tackled.

Kenya’s Attorney General has suggested the rift between the country’s top two leaders could lead to a constitutional crisis.