ENI – WCC general secretary Rev. Samuel Kobia, a Kenyan, said in January he hoped Kenya “will overcome the prevailing situation and that the churches will play an important part in speeding up that time.”
Both global and Kenyan religious leaders have been pressing incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, leader of the Party of National Unity, who was declared the winner in the December elections, and Raila Odinga, of the Orange Democratic Movement, who says the election was rigged, to settle their dispute.
Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is helping to mediate in the dispute, opened talks between the two sides on January 29.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, visited the country soon after the elections and met leaders from both sides at the behest of the Nairobi-based All Africa Conference of Churches in an effort to mediate.
