Annan calls for prosecution of Kenya´s militias

WATCH VIDEO

Source: CCTV.com | 04-20-2008 14:13

The chief mediator in Kenya's political crisis says authorities should prosecute murderous militias that have claimed scores of lives. Kofi Annan's comments come three days after Kenya's new prime minister called for talks with one of the country's most notorious gangs.

Kofi Annan's comments come three days after Kenya's new prime minister called for talks with one of the country's most notorious gangs.(File photo)

Former UN chief Kofi Annan brokered a power sharing deal in February between President Mwai Kibaki and newly appointed Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The deal includes a commitment to disbanding and demobilizing Kenya's militias. Many of them were implicated in the weeks of violence following December's disputed polls.

Kofi Annan said, "The militia must be disarmed, you cannot have armed militia in a society like Kenya, there is no place for armed militia in such a society. They must be disarmed, they cannot be allowed to take the law into their own hands and I'm confident that the government will take measures, and is taking measures to disarm them."

Fourteen people were killed, and public transportation in the eastern part of Nairobi and other towns came to a halt for four days this week, when the Mungiki gang threatened to behead minibus taxi operators. It was part of a protest against alleged extrajudicial killings by the police.

Annan returned to Kenya on Thursday to witness the swearing-in of former opposition leader Odinga and other members of the new coalition Cabinet.

The rivals agreed in February to share power, ending violence that killed more than one-thousand people and displaced 300-thousand. The two sides then spent weeks wrangling over positions.

Editor:Yang Jie