Ghanaian President John Kufour was unsuccessful in his attempt to mediate face-to face talks between Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki. The talks were to be the climax of three days of shuttle diplomacy. On last Thursday, however, the much anticipated face-to face meeting ended on dashed hopes for a coalition government. The two sides trading accusations over who was responsible for the failure.
Kenya’s main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement has since called for a continuation of massive demonstrations on Wednesday.
Joseph Maggoot is a researcher and political analyst. He told Nightline’s Akwei Thompson that the opposition “is deploying mass action to, essentially, further ratchet up the pressure on the government to yield to their demands…”
On the chances of success of the upcoming mediations under former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, Maggoot said that “as a country,and as a nation, we have to be prisoners of hope. We have to always be optimistic that we get to reach a political solution in a more amicable, peaceful manner..”