Bush, First Lady Begin Tour Of Africa

U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Benin on Saturday, kicking off a six-day trip to a continent where he enjoys high approval ratings.

Bush and first lady Laura Bush will visit five nations during their Africa tour. In addition to Benin, the Bushes also will visit Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia.

According to a recent Pew poll of 47 nations, America's popularity remains exceptionally high across Africa.

Their trip -- Bush's second to the continent and his wife's fifth -- will largely focus on the United States' aid programs, which include initiatives to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and poverty.

Ahead of the visit, Bush on Thursday called Africa a "continent of potential," and said the United States is committed to helping it develop.

"It's a place where democracy is advancing, where economies are growing, and leaders are meeting challenges with purpose and determination," Bush said at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, where he and his wife, Laura, addressed the audience.

"Across Africa, people have begun to speak of the Lazarus effect -- where communities once given up for dead are coming back to life," he said, noting that the continent has "also witnessed some of mankind's most shameful chapters -- from the evils of the slave trade to the condescension of colonialism."

He added, "Even the joy of independence, which arrived with such promise, was undermined by corruption, conflict, and disease."

The United States also announced last February its plans to establish an African military command, called Africom, which it says would help prevent war. However, on Wednesday, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said there are not expected to be any announcements concerning that program during Bush's trip.

The president also announced his intention to send U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya to support efforts to reach political conciliation there.

The country erupted in ethnic violence after its December 27 presidential vote, in which incumbent President Mwai Kibaki keep his post. His opponent, Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga, blasted the results, saying the election was rigged, and he and his supporters declined to recognize the election as valid.

Violence has dropped as former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan mediates talks between the two groups.

Stop Kenya burning, says AU head

African leaders at their summit in Ethiopia have been told they must get involved with the crisis in Kenya.
AU commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare told them they could not just sit by. "If Kenya burns, there will be nothing for tomorrow," he said.

More than 850 people have died in political and ethnic clashes since last month's elections, which the opposition says were rigged.

In Nairobi, talks between government and opposition have begun.

Mr Konare - the AU's top executive - said it was the AU's duty to support the mediation process which is led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

'Special responsibility'

The current UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Kenyan leaders to find a peaceful way out.

"President [Mwai] Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga... have a special responsibility to solve the crisis peacefully," he told the summit.

In Kenya itself, just as substantive peace talks began in Nairobi, tension rose in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret when a traffic policeman shot dead an opposition MP - the second to be killed this week.

Kenyan police say the killing was an act of revenge by a jealous boyfriend.

But shops closed as angry protestors marched through the town. Opposition leaders say the shooting was political.

Violence first broke out after the 27 December presidential elections, which the opposition Orange Democratic Movement says Mr Kibaki's government rigged.

Mr Kibaki is among more than 40 leaders present at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, even though the ODM called on the AU not to recognise him.

Mr Odinga, by contrast, has not been invited.

All eyes

The BBC's Will Ross, reporting from the conference, says all eyes will be on Mr Kibaki.

He says Mr Kibaki is likely to brief at least some of the African leaders on events in Kenya, especially the talks between government and opposition.

The Kenyan crisis may then be pushed away, which could be convenient for an organisation which often struggles to tackle the continent's problems with any great urgency, he says.

Despite Mr Konare's plea, the official theme of the AU summit is industrialisation.

But other subjects are likely to include


Sudan, where the AU and the UN have promised to create the world's largest peacekeeping force in Darfur
Somalia, where members are keen to strengthen the small Ugandan and Burundian forces in the country, and
the AU's own internal organisation
Our correspondent says many Africans hope other urgent issues such as Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo will also be tackled.

Fighting Spreads In Western Kenya

At least 17 people are reported to have been killed in another day of violence in western Kenya, apparently linked to last month's disputed elections.
The victims are said to have been beaten, hacked or burned to death by mobs as fighting spread to Naivasha.

The town is about 60km (37 miles) south of Nakuru, also the scene of recent inter-ethnic fighting.

Former UN chief Kofi Annan has been holding talks to try to end the month-long political deadlock in Kenya.

He met opposition leader Raila Odinga in the capital, Nairobi, on Sunday, and called on the two rival parties to nominate officials for further talks.

Mr Annan visited the violence-racked Rift Valley on Saturday, and later said he had seen tragic, heart-wrenching scenes, and "gross and systematic abuse of human rights".

Mr Odinga accuses his rival, President Mwai Kibaki, of stealing December's presidential election.

Dozens of people are reported to have been killed in Rift Valley region in the past few days. In all at least 750 people have died since the disputed election, and about a quarter of a million have been made homeless.

Hacked to death

The fighting in Naivasha is thought to have broken out late on Saturday, descending quickly into sickening brutality, says the www.dnewsbreak.blogspot.com's Adam Mynott in Nairobi.

Reports are unclear but at least nine people are said to have been hacked or clubbed to death as they tried to flee mobs with machetes.



In other cases people were locked inside their homes, which the mobs then ignited with petrol. At least eight charred bodies were said to have been recovered.

Police tried to disperse youths blocking the main road by firing over their heads. By Sunday afternoon the town was reported to be much calmer.

The mobs appeared to from the Kikuyu tribe of President Kibaki, which bore the brunt of the violence that erupted after the election.

"We have moved out to revenge the deaths of our brothers and sisters who have been killed, and nothing will stop us," said Anthony Mwangi, hefting a club in Naivasha.

"For every one Kikuyu killed, we shall avenge their killing with three," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Some of those fleeing the violence have taken shelter in some of the horticultural farms around Naivasha, on the main road between Nakuru and Nairobi, our correspondent says.

The area's huge horticulture and flower-growing industry employs more than 20,000 people, and supplies a third of Europe's cut flowers.

Further north, Kenya's fourth biggest city Nakuru has also been the scene of deadly violence between rival Luo and Kikuyu communities.

Clashes erupted on Thursday between fighters armed with machetes, spears and bows and arrows.

There were no reports of further fighting from Nakuru on Sunday. But the ruins of torched buildings smouldered, and a reporter for news agency AFP said bodies lay in the city's deserted slums.

Annan call

Meanwhile, further south in Nairobi, Mr Annan has embarked on a sixth day of talks aimed at mediating a solution to the crisis.

He met Mr Odinga, after meeting Mr Kibaki on Saturday.

On Saturday, he visited Eldoret in the Rift Valley, scene of some of the worst post-election violence took place and spoke to refugees living in camps.
"We saw gross and systematic abuse of human rights, of fellow citizens and it is essential that the facts be established and those responsible held to account," he said.

Fundamental changes, he added, were needed in Kenya to prevent a repetition of inter-ethnic violence.

"We cannot accept that periodically, every five years or so, this sort of incident takes place and no-one is held to account," he said.

African Union chief Alpha Oumar Konare also urged Kenya to seek a political solution to its problems.

Kofi Annan Blasts Kenyans Authorities

Former UN head Kofi Annan has condemned "gross and systematic abuses of human rights" in Kenya, after a visit to violence-hit parts of the country.
Mr Annan said conflict may have been triggered by disputed elections, but it had evolved into "something else".

The facts had to be established and those responsible held to account, Mr Annan said on his return to Nairobi.

Dozens more deaths were reported on Saturday, with corpses bearing the marks of brutal violence.

Police brought 16 badly burnt bodies to the mortuary in Nakuru, the capital of Rift Valley province. Nine other bodies had been recovered the previous evening, reports said.

Some 15 bodies - covered in arrow wounds - were reported to have been recovered following fighting between rival communities in the district of Molo.

Mr Annan - in Kenya to mediate attempts for a political solution - was flown over Nakuru on Saturday as part of a tour that also included visits to Eldoret and Molo.



Hospital staff in Nakuru said they had received the bodies of nine more people, hacked by machetes or killed by arrows.

Earlier the authorities had imposed an overnight curfew across the city in the wake of renewed inter-ethnic conflict.

Rival gangs of young men battled with machetes, metal bars, bows and arrows, while thick smoke billowed up from burning buildings.

The violence came despite hopes of progress after President Mwai Kibaki met opposition leader Raila Odinga for the first time on Thursday since December's disputed polls.



Burnt forests

Mr Annan set off from Nairobi shortly after first light on Saturday to see for himself some of the destruction and human misery caused by more than three weeks of violence.



He visited some of the thousands of people in Eldoret whose homes have been destroyed or who moved to the town to try to find shelter.

The former UN chief also boarded a helicopter to fly to Molo district where many have been killed.

Speaking in the capital, Nairobi, Mr Annan said: "What we saw was rather tragic. We visited several IDP [internally displaced persons] camps, we saw people pushed from their homes, from their farms, grandmothers, children, families uprooted.

"And I think it is important that all Kenyans respond with sympathy and understanding, and not try to revenge."

He also said there needed to be fundamental changes to Kenya's institutions to prevent a repetition.

"We cannot accept that periodically, every five years or so, this sort of incident takes place and no-one is held to account. Impunity cannot be allowed to stand," Mr Annan added.

Tanzania's former President, Benjamin Mkapa, travelling with Mr Annan, said: "The political crisis in the country [has caused] a state of agony and despair. We console the people."

Barricade

There has been sporadic gunfire in Nakuru on Saturday.

The BBC's Adam Mynott says that some protesters erected a barricade across the main road and many homes have been burnt in the town.

Hundreds of people have sought refuge in churches or friends' homes.

There are also reports of truckloads of many young men being moved overnight to a village on the outskirts of the town.

The unrest triggered by the election on 27 December has driven 250,000 people from their homes. Mr Odinga says he was robbed of the presidency.