AU boss to mediate in Kenya: Ghana minister
Posted: 06 January 2008 0636 hrs

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ACCRA - The chairman of the African Union, Ghana President John Kufuor, will travel to Kenya to mediate between that country's violently opposed political factions, Ghana's foreign minister said Saturday.

"The president is going to talk to both factions -- to sit down and ensure that peace is maintained in Kenya," Foreign Minister Akwasi Osei Adjei told journalists.

He did not say when the visit was scheduled to take place.

On Friday it had looked as if the mediation trip was off after the Kenyan authorities took umbrage at the failure of the AU and Ghana to seek Kenya's permission before dispatching an AU mediator.

Kufuor had been proposed as a mediator by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown together with Sierra Leone's former president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

The two were to have led mediation efforts between freshly re-elected Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his opposition challenger Raila Odinga, who alleges rigging in the tally.

Political and tribal violence erupted after the December 27 elections and has left hundreds dead and thousands displaced.

- AFP /ls